Lucknow: Stone-pelting on police during demolition drive

Residents of Lucknow's Akbar Nagar on Sunday allegedly clashed with police and administration officials and pelted them with stones during an anti-encroachment drive in the locality, officials said.

The alleged incident occurred in the evening when a team of the Lucknow Development Authority and the administration, accompanied by the police, was demolishing illegal structures in the locality along the Faizabad Road.

"Three commercial establishments were being demolished after the high court dismissed writs. While two structures were demolished, locals -- spurred on by some rumour -- started pelting the administration officials and the police with stones during demolition of the third one," Lucknow Development Authority Vice-Chairman Indramani Tripathi said.

No one was injured in the incident, the official said.

"Some locals said debris from the demolished structures damaged their structures, following which seven people were allotted houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana," Tripathi said and added that the situation is under control.

Around 74 BPL card holders of Akbar Nagar had filed a writ petition in the high court, seeking a stay on the development authority's raze drive.

The drive was carried out as the slum has allegedly come up illegally on government land. There are around 1,400 houses in the slum.

Tripathi said the drive is underway to raze commercial establishments and not residential ones, according to the high court's directive.

The Allahabad High Court last week directed all residents to vacate the disputed premises on or before March 31.