An "anti-encroachment drive" was carried out by the Delhi Development Authority in the Mehrauli Archaeological Park area amid police security on Friday, triggering protest from various local residents and a blame game between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The action was taken under a demolition drive, which will be carried out till March 9, officials said. It comes a month ahead of a G20 meeting planned to be hosted at the archaeological park in south Delhi.
"The court has in the past taken note of the encroachment in the historic park in connection with multiple cases, and many people in the past few decades have built unauthorised structures, some, even five-storey or six-storey, in the area. A notice was issued last December and it was pasted on walls to alert people," a senior official in the DDA said.
According to the demolition notice dated December 12, 2022, the land on which the demolition is being carried out is part of the Mehrauli Archaeological Park and the "existing unauthorised encroachment is acting as a hindrance to the development of the Mehrauli Archaeological Park".
The sprawling park is dotted with historic monuments, and while the area falls under the DDA, the heritage structures are maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.
Official sources said the ASI is also working in full swing for the G20 meet at the Mehrauli Archaeological Park, planned to be held early March.
"We are aware that a G20 meeting is planned there," a DDA official said.
Authorities from various agencies in the national capital have began work on sprucing up the city for the G20-related events and the summit that will take place in September, under India's presidency of the influential bloc.
Earlier in the day, as soon as the bulldozer rolled in the area, many took to social media to post picture and video of the demolition action.
Many locals claimed that the drive that started in the morning was demolishing two and three-storeyed buildings near Aulia Masjid at Andehria More along with shanties, and protested the move.
"A demolition drive is being carried out by the horticulture department of the Delhi Development Authority. Police personnel have been deployed on the spot as preventive protection for DDA officials to carry out their duties and also to maintain law and order in the locality. Initially, the localities had staged a protest against the demolition but the situation was later brought under control," a senior police official said, soon after the demolition began.
Aam Aadmi Party MLA Somnath Bharti had also taken to Twitter to share update about the action taken by the DDA, which is headed by the Delhi's Lt Governor, and asked "what's the tearing hurry when the demarcation is under challenge".
A senior police officer later said three or four people, including Bharti, were detained for some time, and they were later released when the demolition action was concluded.
Meanwhile, the AAP on Friday lashed out at the BJP over the Mehrauli demolition drive and accused it of "replicating" what the British did during the colonial rule.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi, senior AAP leader Durgesh Pathak accused the BJP of reneging on its poll promises of 'Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makaan' and said they were demolishing unauthorised colonies and slum areas to "exact revenge" for losing the Delhi assembly and civic polls.
"I don't think this has ever happened in independent India. This used to happen during the British rule. Those who supported freedom fighters in 1857 Mutiny were hanged, their houses were demolished. This is being replicated by the BJP," Pathak alleged.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor shot back, saying AAP leader Pathak is an "expert" in giving "false political statements and misleading the people".
There should be a "high-level probe" as to how registries of buildings constructed on allegedly encroached government land were done, he said.
The revenue department of Delhi government is "responsible for the losses suffered" by people whose buildings were demolished on "encroached land", Kapoor said.
People bought flats and houses there because registry of the properties was being done, which proves a "nexus of the revenue officials", he charged.
