Razes Parikalp Nagar colony housing irrigation dept engineersContradicting its own undertaking submitted in the High Court this week that it had no plans to demolish Parikalp Nagar (East) colony in Alambagh, the state government got the flats vacated and razed the entire colony late on Friday night. Defending its decision, the government said the housed were pulled down because their condition was very poor. (See box)Engineers of the state irrigation department were living in the colony. The demolition drive also violated a High Court ruling, which restricts demolitions between 5 pm and 9 am.According to eyewitnesses, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) and the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) started demolishing the colony at 12:30 am after police and Provincial Armed Constabulary forces cordoned off the entire locality.Permanent structures were demolished in the presence of Secretary to Chief Minister Navneet Sehgal who was accompanied by LDA Secretary Mani Prasad Mishra, Joint Director (land acquisition and development) SB Mishra, Additional Municipal Commissioner AC Sinha and other officials from the district administration and the police.When The Indian Express correspondent reached the site and tried to talk to Sehgal and other LDA officials about the sudden move by the government, they did not comment. Later, the officials directed the police to keep mediapersons out of the premises.Demolition squads also brought down a few other nearby buildings, including Central Design Directorate, a guest house and a field hostel — which are reserved for department officials.UP Engineers Association President A Farooqui said the directorate building was demolished without being vacated and hence several important documents including designs of projects, guidelines and Indian Standard codes, got buried in the debris. Farooqui said November 22 was a ‘Black Day’ for irrigation department engineers.Kamlesh Kumar Dwivedi, who runs an electrical goods shop, near the colony said, “I am conducting my business from this place for the last 12 years. But today morning, policemen are repeatedly forcing me to vacate the shop, even though I have not been provided with any alternate place.”Parikalp Nagar (East) houses 145 flats and is very close to Buddha Sthal, which is under construction. The engineers, residing in these flats, were asked to submit their options where they would like to be rehabilitated on November 25. By Friday night, however, all the occupants were shifted to different locations including the adjacent PWD colony, OCR Building, Raj Bhawan colony and others.Govt issues explanationThrough an official release issued by the Information and Public Relation Department on Saturday, the state government said it decided to demolish the Parikalp Nagar housing colony as the condition of these houses was very poor.The government said following complaints from residents, a technical survey of these houses was conducted by a high-level committee before evacuation of the buildings. The survey reported poor condition of houses and office buildings. The irrigation department had submitted before the state Cabinet a proposal to dismantle these houses. The demolition drive was undertaken after the Cabinet approved the proposal of the committee.
