Indore Municipal Corporation demolition drive at Biyabani illegal: Medha

Indore: Social activist Medha Patkar on Wednesday visited Biyabani and Malharganj areas of the city which had gone through Indore Municipal Corporation's (IMC) demolition drive and alleged that IMC commissioner and Mayor are destroying the cultural identity of the city by razing down buildings that are several years old.
The founding leader of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) visited the Biyabani area, where the civic body had pulled down over 100 structures in order to widen the road for Smart City and Master Plan."When Mayor was fighting assembly elections, she promised the people of the area that their houses will be not be demolished and she would stand with them in case the government tries to take any action detrimental to those living here," Patkar said.
After meeting the residents along with Indore-based social activist Tapan Bhattacharya, she held a meeting in the house of a resident. During the meeting, she said that the civic body has no authorization to pull down houses which have been constructed years before IMC was even constituted.
"Earlier the eviction was limited to slum dwellers, but there is at least a slum rehabilitation act to safeguard people. But there is no law against the demolition that is carried out under the Smart City project," she said. She also added that notices of eviction which were given to the people of the area was vague at its best and doesn't even talk about why houses which were constructed legally are being pulled down at such a short notice.