Ahmedabad Police and Municipal Corporation has launched Phase 2 of the anti-encroachment drive near Chandola lake on Tuesday morning, May 20, in which illegal encroachment will be removed from an area of more than 2.5 lakh square meters. More than 3000 police personnel have been deployed in the area to prevent any untoward incidents. In first phase, 1.5 lakh square meters area were cleared. "The second phase of removing illegal encroachments from Chandola area has started today. 25 companies of Special Reserve Police (SRP) and 3000 policemen have been deployed. All constructions in this area are illegal and are being removed," Ahmedabad DCP Ravi Mohan Saini to the news agency ANI ahead of the demolition drive.
The demolition work has started at 7 am today and may continue for 3 to 4 days to clear 2.5 lakh square meters. Loudspeakers announcements have been made in the affected areas over the past two days, requesting residents to vacate their houses before the demolition drive.
Those citizens are residing in the area before 2010 are eligible to stay for EWS housing and can collect forms from the Danilimda war office. According to the police, Chandola area previously had a high presence of Bangladeshi nationals living without leagal documents. Police detained about 250 illegal immigrants this year from Ahmedabad of which 207 were from the Chandola area, as per The Times of India report.
Sharad Singhal, Joint CP (Crime) said, "In the first phase, about 1.5 lakh square kilometres area was cleared (illegal encroachment) by the corporation and we had made proper arrangements to ensure law and order. The second phase has started from today and adequate police force has been deployed. Senior officers are present on the spot and the public is also cooperating with us."