A scuffle broke out on Tuesday between a group of locals in Surat’s Nasirnagar, including several Congress workers, and security personnel of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) after the group was allegedly not allowed to meet Surat Municipal Commissioner M Nagarajan over the “unauthorised” demolition of several shanties in their areas recently.
The police detained around 50 people, including several Congress workers, who were protesting outside Nagarajan’s residence.
Meanwhile, amid the controversy, a senior engineer with the SMC who is facing allegations of “irregularities” in the matter went on “indefinite leave” from Tuesday. The official has been identified as the executive engineer of Central Zone, Jayang Jivan Ramjiwala. An official associated with the Central Zone of the SMC, who did not wish to be named, confirmed that Ramjiwala had “gone on leave for an indefinite period”.
On Tuesday, the SMC purportedly issued a notice to the landowner concerned, on whose plot a large-scale construction project is in progress.
The notice, written in Gujarati, was signed by the officer who went “on leave” and is addressed to multiple landowners.
The notice says, “The basement and foundation work of building construction is in progress at revenue survey numbers 1267, 1267/3, 1268. No permission for construction activities was obtained from the SMC. There are possibilities of water gathering at the basement/foundation site, which may result in mosquito breeding and health concerns for nearby residents. It has been requested to fill the basement or foundation area to address these health concerns. If there is an outbreak of illness and loss of life, you will be held responsible.”
When contacted, SMC officials said that in accordance with the pre-monsoon activities of SMC, civic teams visited that spot and found “a deep foundation and an open basement area”. Thus, such notices were issued with regard to the construction site, they added.
This comes a day after a resident of Nasirnagar slum in Surat’s Ved Darwaja area moved the Gujarat High Court on Monday, challenging the demolition of several shanties and alleging that “due process was not followed” and sought a stay on the “drive”.
While the demolitions of nearly 100 units were carried out from May 28, allegedly under police protection, the SMC has denied its involvement in the action even as the BJP MLA from the constituency, Vinu Moradiya, said later on Monday that there was “something fishy” about it.
The Special Civil Application (SCA) filed by Hussain Aziz Shaikh (40), whose house is yet to be demolished, has made the State of Gujarat, Surat Municipal Corporation, Surat Police Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner of Police and Special Operation Group respondents in the case.
Sources told The Indian Express that some people “dressed in sky-blue shirts and black trousers, accompanied purportedly by Surat police Special Operation Group personnel and Chowk Bazaar police personnel, were part of the demolition squad.”
While residents claimed that the drive was done by the SMC, municipal commissioner N Nagarajan told The Indian Express on Monday, “We have not done demolition, our officials had gone only for line marking. Our teams were present for the demarcation of a road proposed by a private party. The land is privately owned and a part of the plot has been assigned to build a road under the town planning scheme. Our function is first we do land marking and then after a few days we carry out demolition. This demolition work was not done by us.”
Officers in the Surat police, however, told The Indian Express that they received an application and other required documents from SMC authorities to provide security for the demolition in the Nasirnagar slums. “It was a demand made by SMC, so we provided police force to prevent any incident of law and order”, claimed an officer who did not wish to be named.
On Tuesday afternoon, a group of residents of the Nasirnagar slums reached the SMC headquarters (Tapi Bhavan) and sat silently on the main road outside, waiting for Congress corporator Arshad Jariwala. A police team also reached the spot after receiving a complaint about “traffic problems”. The SMC’s security personnel allegedly shut the main doors so that nobody could enter the SMC premises. The police asked the residents to disperse. Meanwhile, local Congress corporator Arshad Jariwala reached the spot and tried to enter the SMC campus to make representations to the Surat Municipal Corporation.
The protesters, including Congress leaders and others, soon reached the Surat Municipal Commissioner’s bungalow at Athwalines, and staged a sit-in protest outside.
The Umra police reached the spot after learning about the incident and detained around 50 people, including some women, from the spot and removed other protesters.
Corporator Jariwala said, “The affected families of Nasirnagar wanted to meet the Surat Municipal commissioner and wanted to make representations. We wanted copies of the approved plan for the under-construction project near Nasirnagar, along with other details of the land. We reached the bungalow of the commissioner, and later, the police turned up and detained us.”
He added, “On June 12, Congress party MLAs across Gujarat will visit Surat and we will protest. We want the SMC officials involved in wrongdoing in connection with this demolition to be suspended and they should face legal action. The civic officials have become tools of private builders and evicted the poor from their houses and later demolished their homes.”
Surat demolition row intensified on Tuesday after residents and Congress workers protesting alleged unauthorised demolition of shanties (Photo/PTI) 
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