Sambhal (UP), April 5 Residents of Mubarakpur Band village in the Sambhal district began demolishing an illegal madrasa, a mosque, and a primary school on Sunday, using a bulldozer, officials said.
On Saturday, Haji Munawwar, the husband of the village head, had requested Tehsildar Dhirendra Kumar Singh to provide machinery for the demolition work, saying that manual labor alone was insufficient.
On Sunday, a bulldozer, paid for by the villagers, was deployed in the village to clear the structures, including the Ghausul Madrasa, a mosque, and a primary school, which occupied three-and-a-half bighas of land belonging to the Gram Sabha.
"It would take approximately 20 hours to clear the structures," Munawwar said.
"The tehsildar visited the village on Saturday, and we explained to him that demolishing the structures manually was not possible, as it would take a long time. So we requested him to provide an excavator, which arrived today. We will bear the cost for its use," he added.
Confirming that the structures were built by encroaching on Gram Sabha land, the tehsildar said, "The villagers took the initiative to demolish the structures after realizing that they were built on government land. They had requested our support to expedite the process."