NEW DELHI: Heavy police and paramilitary forces were deployed in violence-hit Jahangirpuri ahead of Wednesday’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 Municipal Corporation (North) 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.It is our routine exercise. We will execute it and return,” Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh said.
Officials said security forces carried out a flag march and took stock of the situation before the drive was launched. A drone was deployed to monitor the situation. Ahead of the drive, people in Jahangirpuri C Block voluntarily removed their belongings from roadsides, they said.
The civic body on Tuesday requested the police to provide at least 400 security personnel to maintain law and order during the two-day drive. The area witnessed violent clashes between two communities during a Hanuman Jayanti procession on Saturday.