|
The civic body has sought security cover from the district administration from Wednesday for demolishing illegal houses at Bhagwat Nagar following a Supreme Court ruling.
On September 12, the court had asked Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the state government to demolish 50 illegal houses at Bhagwat Nagar and hand over the plots to Finance Co-operative House Construction Society.
“We have filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court that we will start demolition on September 26. We will go there with special security forces,” said Avinash Kumar Singh, director, urban planning, PMC.
Sources said the state government had allotted 12.5 acres in Bhagwat Nagar to Finance Co-operative House Construction Society around 10 years ago. But the government did not take steps to raze illegal structures from around six acres of the land.
Miffed at the government inaction, a functionary of the society filed a contempt case in the apex court against the state government, which recently ordered the demolition of the illegal structures.
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) also complained against the encroachments claiming that they were obstructing their excavation work of a once-magnificent 80-pillared hall and the arogyashala (clinic) of Dhanwantari, a medical practitioner of the Maurya dynasty. ASI officials said the illegal structures have been built within 6-10m of the site though construction within a 100m radius of the site is restricted.
A recent PMC survey found 131 illegal structures on the plots meant for the society members. The court has asked to raze 50 of them, while cases related to the rest are on.
The occupants of the illegal houses termed the demolition bid unjust. They claimed that the government had no right to get the colony vacated because the owners had bought the plots from farmers several decades ago.
“We constructed our houses abiding by all the due procedures. Hence, we were provided civic facilities like roads, water and electricity connection. After sleeping for all these years, they are now hell bent on throwing us out of our homes,” said Chitranjan Tyagi, a resident of Bhagwat Nagar.
Last year, the residents, supported by Kumhrar MLA Arun Kumar Sinha of the BJP, had chased away the PMC demolition team. After the apex court order, Sinha, has distanced himself from the issue.
| 
