NDMC bulldozers begin drive to remove encroachments in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, heavy security deployed

Bulldozers belonging to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) arrived in Delhi’s violence-hit Jahangirpuri locality on Wednesday and began removing illegal constructions in the area, reported ANI.

There is a heavy police and paramilitary forces deployment in Jahangirpuri ahead of today’s anti-encroachment drive in the area, even as the local mayor called it a ‘routine exercise.’

The drive is undertaken a day after Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta wrote to the party-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) to identify illegal constructions of ‘rioters’ in Jahangirpuri and demolish them using bulldozers.

“Our JCBs (excavators) and staff will go to Jahangirpuri to remove illegal encroachment from roads and government land. It is our routine exercise. We will execute it and return,” NDMC Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh said.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Khemchand Sharma has thanked Union Home Minister Amit Shah for ordering the NDMC to carry out drive against illegal encroachments in the Jahangirpuri locality.

Officials said security forces were carrying out a flag march in the area and they took stock of the situation before the drive was launched. A drone has also been deployed to monitor the situation.

Ahead of the drive, people in Jahangirpuri C Block voluntarily removed their belongings from roadsides, they said. The NDMC had on Tuesday requested the Delhi Police to provide at least 400 security personnel to maintain law and order during the two-day drive.

The area witnessed violent clashes, including stone-pelting, arson and firing, between two communities during a Hanuman Jayanti procession on Saturday. Eight police personnel and a local resident had sustained injuries.