A posse of Delhi Police officers, MCD officials and officials from the DDA’s land management department were forced to beat a hasty retreat from Jamia Nagar late on Thursday evening. The team was there after a senior politician reportedly complained to the Lieutenant Governor regarding unauthorised constructions on the riverbed.

Okhla MLA Mohammad Asif said, “A large team of civic body and police officials visited Batla House lane between 7.30 and 8 pm on Thursday. They were forced to leave after people protested.”

Sources said former Okhla MLA and current Rajya Sabha MP Parvez Hashmi had visited the Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna alleging that there were unauthorised constructions on the riverbed. “Everybody knows that Hashmi went to the L-G and complained that certain members of his own party, the Congress, were raising unauthorised constructions. The team went to check constructions in Syed Enclave of Jamia Nagar by a Congress councillor,” a senior political worker told Newsline.

Ranjan Mukherjee, Officer on Special Duty to the Lieutenant Governor told Newsline, “It was a routine response to a complaint filed with the L-G’s grievance cell. There were no plans to demolish anything.”

Local Congress party workers, meanwhile, got in touch with area MP Sandeep Dikshit. “The matter is politically motivated and was the outcome of a complaint filed by a senior figure in Okhla politics. The police have no business to conduct a routine survey at 8 pm and when I spoke to Delhi Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal, he said that no videography can be conducted at night,” said Dikshit.

... contd.