As bulldozers reach Khori village, protesting locals detained on the way to PM's residence

New Delhi/Gurugram: The teams of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad on Thursday demolished over 90 makeshift houses in Khori village on Thursday. None of these makeshift structures that have been demolished had any human settlements.

And as the bulldozers reached the small village that houses over 30,000 — soon to be left homeless, protesters from the village were detained in the Capital on their way to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence to stage an agitation.

According to officials of the Delhi Police, over 100 protesters were detained from the Barakhamba Road area. One senior cop said that the protesters were on their way to stage a stir near the Prime Minister's residence but were stopped and detained.

Officials in the police added that the detainees were held temporarily at various police stations such as Mandir Marg and Barakhamba Road before releasing them. One other cop said that the protesters were released very soon while another senior official said that protesters did not have permission and were violating DDMA orders.

The demolitions on Thursday are seen as a major step towards the massive exercise of demolishing more than 6,000 structures that will affect over 1 lakh people who are residing in Khori. With all the surveys done, the Faridabad public agencies have stated that they have done all the preparations and that demolition can now happen.

With a large number of livelihoods being affected due to demolitions that will be carried out the officials are providing ample amount of time to the local population to take all their valuables from houses that will be demolished. Even though a large number of people have left Khori following the Supreme Court order of demolishing the colony, there are still a substantial number of people who are staying put hoping that either their house will not be demolished or they will be given another area to reside.

On June 7, the Supreme Court in its order proclaimed that Khori village was set up illegally in the forest area of Aravallis. It had given Faridabad public agencies a time frame of six weeks to carry out the demolition. With the deadline set by the Supreme Court nearing, the Faridabad agencies have now started their preparation to carry out the demolition drive.

Section-144 of the CrPC has been already imposed but despite this protests in the area have continued with force. On Thursday, top officials once again reviewed the entry and exit points of earthmovers and trucks that will be used to carry out demolitions.

According to the official survey that was conducted there are around 6157 structures that need to be demolished.

(With inputs from Abhay Singh)