Anti-encroachment in Delhi: SDMC carries out demolition in Mangolpuri and New Friends Colony

Security personnel on Tuesday were deployed at New Friends Colony and Mangolpuri as the South Delhi Municipal Corporation's (SDMC) began its planned demolition drive. According to latest updates, a bulldozer was being brought to the area for the anti-encroachment exercise.

AAP MLA Mukesh Ahlawat said he was against the drive and that the exercise should be stopped. “When people have vacated the area, why are they (North MCD) creating inconvenience to them by using bulldozers by surrounding them. We are against it and it should be stopped. They need to prove first that there's encroachment,” Ahlawat was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

AAP MLA Mukesh Ahlawat has also been detained by the police in Mangolpuri for allegedly blocking the demolition drive.

While the DCP of the Mangolpuri area, Sameer Sharma said that the anti-encroachment drive is being carried out under the supervision of the Delhi court. "High Court is supervising the demolition drive. Police force is present in the area and the situation is under control. We are taking precautionary measures and the MCD is cooperating with us," he told ANI.

"The anti-encroachment drive is going on, local MLA (AAP MLA Mukesh Ahlawat) came here and asked what was the need to use JCBs. To prevent the drive from being getting jeopardised, we detained the MLA," he added.

Bulldozers reached Shaheen Bagh on Monday as the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) pushed ahead with its anti-encroachment drive in the locality that was the epicentre of the anti-CAA stir a few years ago.

On Monday, May 9, chaotic scenes unfolded in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh area, as Congress, AAP, and Bhim Army members, held anti-encroachment protests.