Locals sit on roads to protest against anti-encroachment drive in Shaheen Bagh

The Delhi Police will provide security to the South Delhi Municipal Corporation for its anti-encroachment drive at Shaheen Bagh and other places on Monday.Locals were seen sitting on roads and stopping bulldozers that were brought for the demolition drive. The civic body's drives in the Kalindi Kunj-Jamia Nagar area near Shaheen Bagh and in Sriniwaspuri were cancelled on earlier occasions due to the unavailability of an adequate police force. The chairman of the SDMC's standing committee (central zone), Rajpal, said the municipality will do its work and encroachments would be removed from wherever they were.

“Our workers and officials are ready. Teams and bulldozers have been organized. Encroachments will be removed wherever they are -- be it in Tughlakabad, Sangam Vihar, New Friends Colony or Shaheen Bagh,” Rajpal was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. The SDMC has reportedly prepared a 10-day action plan to remove encroachment from several areas, including Shaheen Bagh. The North Delhi Municipal Corporation had come under fire from several civil rights groups and opposition parties after it bulldozed structures in the Jahangirpuri area in an anti-encroachment drive. The operation was stopped following the Supreme Court's intervention. Meanwhile, the CPI(M)'s Delhi unit and Hawkers Union moved the apex court on Saturday against the south Delhi civic body's demolishing drive, terming it a "violation of principles of natural justice, statutes and the Constitution" under the guise of an anti-encroachment drive.