GDA to start sealing, demolition of illegal buildings tomorrow

The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) will launch a massive demolition drive against illegally constructed buildings here from tomorrow even as it has so far demolished 27 such structures.

In the drive starting tomorrow, the GDA will seal and demolish the illegally constructed and dilapidated buildings, authority sources said.

Vice chairperson of GDA and district magistrate Ritu Maheshwari said 650 buildings have been identified and they would be sealed by the authority and Nagar Nigam by the end of this month.

Nobody will be spared who so ever he or she may be, she added.

This comes days after three Ghaziabad MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party wrote to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath raising objection to GDA action and suggested the illegal buildings be made part of the 'Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna' instead of being torn down.

Urban Development minister Suresh Khanna yesterday had told the media that the drive against illegal buildings will continue. Illegal is illegal, he had said.

The Enforcement Department has identified such buildings and notices have been issued to the builders, Maheshwari said.

Two people were killed and eight others injured when a five-storey under-construction building collapsed in the Akash Nagar area here on July 22.