Over 50 shanties located on the banks of the Yamuna River in East Delhi were gutted in a fire on Sunday after noon. No injuries were reported, the police said.
The residents staged a protest and blocked the ITO Yamuna Bridge for half an hour that led to major traffic snarl on ITO to laxmi Nagar road. The roads got cleared after police intervened.
According to an official of the Delhi Fire Service, the call was received at around 1.50 pm stating that a fire broke out in the jhuggis located on Yamuna Khadar in the East Delhi. The fire call was completed at 3.20 pm with no causality. “Eight tenders were rushed to the spot along with local police and other teams. It took around an hour to douse the fire and the cooling process went on till evening,” said a fire official.
He added that a crime team also visited the spot to investigate the cause of fire.
However, residents in shanties alleged that on February a team of Delhi Development Authority visited the area and planted saplings and instructed to vacate the land. Even on Friday, a team of DDA revisited the area and again instructed them to vacate the land or ready to face severe action.
They suspect the fire ‘incident’ is a part of conspiracy to uproot them from the land where they are staying for the past several years.
Irked over the incident, they also stopped fire engines entering the fire site but after intervention of local police, the fire operation was resumed, said a police official.
Police said that the residents who were staging protest also tried to block the ITO-laxmi Nagar road but they were removed with the help of reserve police force. The traffic was resumed normal within few minutes.
“Some people received minor abrasions but they didn’t have to be taken to the hospital. All the people were timely evacuated from the jhuggi. What caused the fire hasn’t been ascertained so far,” said a senior police official.