The local administration along with officials of the Indian Air Force conducted a massive anti-encroachment drive against 35 illegal farmhouses spread over several acre of government land in Nagla-Nagli village along the Noida Expressway on Wednesday.
Air Force officials said that unauthorised construction on 40 acres of land in the village was bulldozed.
In July this year, the Allahabad High Court had directed the district administration to identify the land allotted to the Air Force decades ago. Since then, several acres of land was grabbed by developers and illegal colonies had sprung up.
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482 acres of land
Around 482 acres of land in the village belongs to the Ministry of Defence. It was allotted to the Indian Air Force for a bombing range in 1950.
“Despite several notices that were not taken seriously by the people. The encroachers were served show cause notices on November 8, and then eviction notices on December 1. Several encroachers had come to the spot after receiving about the drive. They tried to resist but were pushed back by heavy deployment of security forces,” said a senior government official.
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Gautam Buddh Nagar district magistrate B. N. Singh said that the drive will continue on Thursday and the rest of the land would be cleared of encroachments.
The Ministry of Defence said that after the drive, they will construct a fence around the land.