Nagpur: Tension was created in Vandevi Nagar in north Nagpur under Yashodhara Nagar police station on Wednesday morning when a demolition squad of Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) tried to raze a temple. Activists of Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal, accompanied by local residents, surrounded the temple and did not allow NIT to go ahead.
The NIT squad was accompanied by police personnel but the size of the mob made them give up their plan. It waited at the spot for about 3.30 hours but the mob did not budge.
A NIT official said that the civic agency was only doing its job. “The temple has been built on NIT land and we have to remove it. We have asked the locals to remove the temple themselves and prevent any unpleasantness in future,” he added.
Shiv Sena corporator Bandu Talwekar, however, said that his party would not allow the temple to be razed. “Our area is full of encroachments due to collusion of NIT officials. Instead of demolishing them, the squad only tried to raze the temple. We are not against removing encroachments and, in fact, want NIT to do that,” he told TOI.
Talwekar further said he had met the acting NIT chairman Sachin Kurve and pointed out this fact to the officer. “I provided him details of the areas where encroachment had taken place. Kurve appreciated this fact,” he added.