More than 200 buildings have been razed up to now on the Gandhvi fishing harbour close to the well-known Harsiddhi temple in Devbhumi Dwarka district because the state authorities’s demolition drive continued for the second day Sunday, mentioned authorities.
The district administration had begun the mega demolition drive within the fishing harbour in Kalyanpur taluka Saturday, round two weeks after the Gujarat High Court disposed of a petition. As many as 69 fishermen of Gandhvi and 122 from the close by Navadra had petitioned the HC in search of regularisation of their houses constructed on the federal government land after income officers of Devbhumi Dwarka served them notices in January asking them to vacate the premises and demolish them.
In the notices, the federal government had mentioned the homes have been encroachments on authorities land.
Sources within the income division mentioned 102 buildings have been demolished in Gandhvi Saturday and encroachment was thus faraway from 3.70 lakh sq. toes of land (sqft). On Sunday, 137 extra buildings have been razed, clearing one other 5.10 sqft land. “A majority of the structures demolished
included residential premises, a few commercial establishments and a handful of religious structures as well,” mentioned an officer.
These unauthorised buildings have been constructed on the federal government land often called Harshad Bandar or Harshad Harbour within the Mendha creek close to the shrine of goddess Harsiddhi, mentioned sources. “These houses, godowns, etc were located very much along the seacoast and can be used as a landing point for illegal smuggling such as that of narcotic drugs,” the Devbhumi Dwarka SP mentioned.
“The police deployment continues to pre-empt any untoward incident,” Nitish Pandey, Superintendent of Police (SP), of Devbhumi Dwarka informed The Indian Express, including, “Around 800 police personnel, including two companies of the SRP (state reserve police) have been deployed in the harbour.”
This is the second main demolition drive alongside the Devbhumi Dwarka coast in about three months.
In October final 12 months, the federal government undertook a serious demolition drive and razed a couple of hundred buildings in Bet Dwarka, an island off the Okha coast on which Dwarkadhish Mukhya Mandir, a shrine of Lord Krishna is positioned.
Gandhvi has a inhabitants of round 3000, principally fishermen. In their petition to the HC, the fishermen had sought path to the state authorities to regularise their houses beneath a 1981 round of the state authorities which offers for “gamtal” to fishermen residing in huts alongside the seacoast.
However, after the state authorities argued that the buildings posed a menace to nationwide safety and cited two letters from the Additional Director of General of Police (Intelligence), the petitioner submitted within the courtroom that they didn’t wish to press their case of regularisation of their buildings.
The HC disposed of the matter after the federal government assured that the affected households might be rehabilitated based on present insurance policies of the federal government, paving the best way for the demolition.