The anti-encroachment department of the Nashik Municipal Corporation demolished 19 illegal dwellings on a plot of land reserved for a civic school in the Satpur area of the city on Thursday .
The drive started around 7am under heavy police bandobast as the civic body feared retaliation by the squatters. A team of state reserve police force (SRPF) accompanied the local police and the civic officials. Bulldozers were used to raze the illegal structures.
“The drive was carried out at Pimplegaon Bahula village in Satpur that falls under the jurisdiction of NMC. Initially, some of the dwellers tried to resist but the huge police presence ensured smooth conduct of the drive,” civic officials said.
NMC officials said that the occupants of these structures were served notices by the civic body over a month ago to vacate them along with their belongings as the demolition drive would be undertaken anytime.
The owners of these dwellings shifted all their belongings from their houses before the demolition drive started.
“The plot where these illegal structures came up is reserved for a civic school. The local corporators of Satpur have been demanding an NMC-run school constructed on the plot for children in that area,” sources in NMC said.
However, later the civic authorities received a feedback that the dwellings exist on that same plot of land where the elected representatives were insisting to set up a school.
“We sought feedback about the plot of land from the office of the special land acquisition officer of the district revenue department. The latter informed us that the plot was reserved for a civic school. The NMC then decided to get rid of the illegal structures on the plot,” said civic officials .