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The railway authority has initiated a three-day eviction drive at the Shahjahanpur railway colony on Tuesday in order to free the country’s railway areas from illegal occupation.
The railway officials started the eviction drive from 10:00 am that continued till 5:00pm destroying and evacuating several hundreds of establishment including building, houses, grocery shops, and others.
The drive will continue in three phases, on duty railway officials told the FE. Some 1,300 illegal establishments are there at the colony, the officials added.
The drive was initiated after a pre notice was announced three days earlier, but most of the people were living in the slum and other establishment didn’t care about the notice, officials added at the spot.
Locals told the FE that about 100,000 people were living at the colony dividing in about 15 separate middle-size slums.
Visiting the site, the FE reporter saw some illegally occupied political offices were also demolished in the drive.
Rahamatulla, 50, was living at the slum and running a grocery shops which got demolished in the drive. He told the FE that they knew that a railway drive-notice was issued in this regard.
However, they were living and running business paying local influential people and political figures.