Demolition team forced to return from Bapu Dham

Chandigarh, July 18

A joint team of the administration and the Municipal Corporation, which had gone to Bapu Dham Colony, Sector 26, to carry out an anti-encroachment drive today, was forced to return by protesting residents and leaders.

The team reached the colony in the morning to remove tin sheds put up in front of shops. The local residents opposed the drive. Soon, Congress leaders also reached there and staged a protest.

Leaders of the BJP also took out a march in the area in protest against the drive. Local BJP councillor Dalip Sharma and city unit vice-president Devinder Singh Babla, along with other party leaders and workers, took part in the march.

“About 75 per cent shopkeepers have themselves removed their tin sheds. There are some minor encroachments and the shop owners will remove those too. We got the anti-encroachment drive stopped,” said the councillor.

The Congress workers, led by city unit president Harmohinder Singh Lucky, Youth Congress president Manoj Lubana, raised slogans against the BJP as well as the MC. The BJP has not formulated a single scheme to rehabilitate the poor in Chandigarh so far, they alleged.