IMC demolish illegal structures; recovers property worth Rs 1000 crore in anti-mafia drive in Indore

Mumbai, Sep 24: In a massive anti-mafia drive, the Indore Municipal Corporation, district administration and police demolished illegal structures in Kanadia area of the city on Friday. It was launched after Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered a crackdown on the land mafia to remove encroachments from government land, an official said.

Rivaj Garden and Prem Bandhan Garden among many other illegal structures, which had come up on 38 acres of government land, worth Rs 1,000 crore, were demolished during the drive.

"Under the drive, we demolished illegal constructions on 38 acres of government land at different places in Kanadia area of the city," the PTI quoted an additional district magistrate (ADM) Pawan Jain as saying.

The demolition team from the Indore Municipal Corporation armed with JCB and Poclain Machine landed on Kanadia Road at 6 pm. Two wedding venues which had been illegally constructed on government lands were also razed under the drive jointly run by the district administration, Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) and police, Jain said.

Additional commissioner Sandeep Soni Rivaj Garden was illegally constructed while Prem Bandhan Garden was allegedly built after getting permission from the panchayat through forged documents.

"The building permission given by the land mafia has the signature of the sarpanch while the signature of the secretary should have also been on the documents. FIR will be lodged against the mafia and the then sarpanch," he said.

As per the PTI report, the market value of the encroached land is Rs 1,000 crore.

The district administration has demolished as many as 90 big and small shops that had encroached on government land, IMC deputy commissioner Sandeep Soni said.