GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad administration conducted a significant demolition operation in Loni tehsil on Thursday, targeting illegal land occupancy and unauthorized colonies. District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar Mandar instructed all tehsils to establish task forces to tackle the land mafia. According to officials, illegal constructions spread over approximately 13.5 hectares were dismantled.
Officials reported that these constructions were unauthorized and breached land-use regulations, including developments in the river’s floodplain area. Deepak Singhanwal, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Loni, noted that illegal plotting occurred on the Yamuna floodplains, where offenders erected boundary walls and initiated unauthorized constructions by installing pillars.
“It is common knowledge that construction is prohibited in the Yamuna floodplains. The area was submerged during the flooding of the Yamuna last September. Since then, our team has been identifying defaulters who undertook these illegal constructions, issuing multiple warnings of demolition if they did not remove them. Given that construction persisted, the demolitions took place on Thursday,” he stated.
A collaborative effort involving officials from the revenue department, GDA, UPSIDA, and police was responsible for demolishing the unauthorized colonies erected in the Yamuna floodplain and other regions including Mirpur Hindu and Badarpur villages.
The day preceding the demolition drive, DM Mandar led a high-level meeting to review revenue processes. He emphasized a unified approach against illegal land occupancy and land encroachment. The DM assessed anti-land mafia operations, revenue collection, removal of encroachments on government land, mining enforcement, task force effectiveness, disaster management readiness, and digitization of land records.
