Disaster relief force demolishes slums on land marked for its HQ

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Friday morning conducted a three-hour-long drive, demolishing slums in Priyanka Gandhi camp in southwest Delhi's Vasant Vihar area.

- Snehil Sinha

Residents of the area, however, staged a protest and tried to stop the demolition team from entering the colony.

Officials said that the land was allotted by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to NDRF in 2020 for the construction of its headquarters. Around 69 families from the area had approached the Delhi high court seeking a stay on demolition in the first week of May, which was quashed on May 30 by the court after the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) said that the area was not part of its 675 JJ clusters and was occupied illegally.

The court said at the time that residents of the cluster, which houses approximately 90 families, must be given time till June 15 to vacate the area and asked DUSIB to provide temporary shelter to them at its own cost.