Lucknow, June 24 Reviving its campaign against the land mafia, the Yogi Adityanath government got a portion of a private medical college and associated hospital on the IIM Road here bulldozed by the district administration on Tuesday despite incessant rains.
The medical facility is owned by former Samajwadi Party Minister of State, Mohd Iqbal, and he had encroached upon land owned by the state irrigation department.
The building was razed on the orders of the revenue court. According to the court, the building was encroaching government land meant for construction of a road.
The hospital had been designated as a level-1 COVID-19 hospital by the administration, but no patient has been admitted here so far.
A heavy posse of personnel from three police stations and a company of the Provincial Armed Constabulary was deployed at the site and three bulldozers took all day to demolish the part said to be constructed on an encroached land.
Additional District Magistrate (Administration) Amar Pal Singh said that the revenue court had in February directed to remove the encroachment but the institute's administration did not comply with it, hence bulldozing became necessary.
"The court had also imposed a penalty of Rs three lakh on the institute. Power supply to the institute was disconnected before the bulldozing started," he added.
Administration officer of the medical college Captain R. K. Pandey said that the OPD services were affected because of the exercise.
He said that the demolition will also affect studies of around 500 students currently enrolled with the institute. He said that the institute had offered land behind the building for construction of the road but it was not accepted.
Director General Medical Education K.K. Gupta said, "Around 150 seats for the UG programme and 20 seats for the PG had been approved for the institute."
Meanwhile, the government spokesman said that during the past three years, the state government had received 2,80,518 complaints of encroachment and land grabbing on its anti-land mafia portal.
Of these, 2,79,0210 complaints had been resolved and nearly 69,619-hectare land was freed from encroachment.
The spokesman said that 2,084 persons had been identified as land mafia and 181 had been arrested. Sixty-nine land mafia were booked under the Gangster Act and four under the National Security Act.
( With inputs from IANS )