NEW DELHI: The Noida Authority on Friday bulldozed encroachments into common spaces by several apartment owners in Grand Omaxe housing society, where a spat between politician Shrikant Tyagi and another resident over the same issue had triggered a major row last month.
Tyagi was arrested after he was caught on tape abusing and shoving a woman who protested when palm trees were being planted in the open space in front of his ground-floor apartment. The razing of encroachments, mostly temporary constructions outside ground-floor apartments, came in the wake of a 48-hour notice by the authority after palm trees were again transplanted outside Tyagi’s apartment on Tuesday despite police presence.
Multiple excavators and around half a dozen dumper trucks were used to demolish the encroachment in the Sector 93B society, officials said. A senior Noida authority official said, “Altogether encroachments were removed from common areas by 17 apartment owners. This also included the removal of trees planted outside Shrikant Tyagi’s flat. There are several other residents who have encroached the common area and action would be taken in their cases soon.”
The officials reached Grande Omaxe with excavators and trucks around 10.30 pm but were met with resistance by a section of residents sitting at the front gate of the society. While some residents carried posters and pleaded with the officials not to proceed with the demolition, some questioned the legality of the action. The officials accompanied by scores of police and rapid action force personnel entered the society around 1 pm from an alternate gate. The residents continued to plead to the officials even as the bulldozers razed down more than two dozen illegal structures on the ground floor.