Residents protest anti-encroachment drive

Residents of Sarfabad village stopped a Noida Authority’s anti-encroachment drive team from demolishing shops there on Wednesday Officials part of the team said the farmers claimed ownership of the land following which they decided to postpone the demolition drive

Residents of Sarfabad village stopped a Noida Authority’s anti-encroachment drive team from demolishing shops there on Wednesday

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Officials part of the team said the farmers claimed ownership of the land following which they decided to postpone the demolition drive.

The team comprising land department officials had gone to the village located on the main road that links Noida with Greater Noida West at around 11am with two earthmovers and around 50 constables. They had intended to recover around 340 square metres of encroachment.

“We had freed around 50 square metres when farmers arrived showing some papers that claimed the land was theirs. We decided to postpone the drive so that we can re-verify the documents and then take appropriate action,” said Rajiv Mohan Saxena, tehsildar and head of the Noida Authority’s anti-encroachment cell.

The authority’s chief executive officer Ritu Maheshwari had earlier ordered an inspection of the village.

Village residents alleged that the authority was harassing them.

“In 2001, the Allahabad high court had decided that the land in question was not of the authority. Today morning, they suddenly tried to demolish our shops. We protested and showed them papers. We hope that the authority will not harass us in future,” said Gaurav Yadav, farmer from Sarfabad.