Gurugram’s Banjara market was demolished on Tuesday, 5 October, by the district authorities.
According to news agency ANI, a district official said that shopkeepers were given time to shift from there. The official further claimed that the action was taken after they ignored notices to remove encroachments.
“We had issued notices to sellers to vacate the land earlier. Most of them had not removed items from their stalls when the demolition started on Tuesday, but started moving their belongings to trucks once the drive began. Others have sought two days’ time. Thereafter, the remaining encroachments will be cleared,” the Sub Divisional Officer was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
According to Hindustan Times, the drive was carried out by the enforcement team of the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) and approximately 250 makeshift shops and hutments were demolished.
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HSVP officials said the shops had "come up illegally on land owned by the authority" over the last 15 years. The officials said that owners of around 50 shops had been given two days to vacate their respective shops.
After the demolition, "around 80 percent of the illegal properties on 25 acres of HSVP land" had been cleared, officials said, according to Hindustan Times.
Further Satya Narain, subdivisional officer (survey), HSVP, told Hindustan Times that the drive began at 11 am in the morning and continued till the evening, with his team being supported by 200 police personnel, including 50 women police officials.
The officials said the entire service road, along the main sector road had been cleared.
The 25-acre land has been earmarked for the "construction of a college, a bus stand and group housing societies", officials said. The Income Tax department has also been allotted a part of the plot for the construction of official accommodations, they added.
Most of the shops sold furniture and traditional handicrafts. Banjara Market is located at Sector 56 of Gurugram.
(With inputs from ANI, The Times of India and Hindustan Times)
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