NEW DELHI: After more than a couple of weeks, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Wednesday resumed its demolition drive targeting unauthorised constructions in the posh Defence Colony area in the Capital even as the civic body squads continued with its sealing drive targeting more than 450 illegal shops operating from the city's residential areas.

Accompanied by a large number of police personnel, MCD's anti-encroachment squad carried out the special drive mainly removing illegal structures from public land. At least 85 structures were removed from A and C blocks of Defence Colony without any protest from the local public. The MCD squad targeted illegal extensions in residential properties that had come up on municipal land and were blocking space for movement of people and traffic.

Similarly, the civic body's sealing squads targeted illegal shops in eight civic zones, besides de-sealing more than 300 shops in various areas.

The sealing drive was mainly confined to East of Kailash, Jehangirpuri, Desh Bandhu Gupta Road, Raja Dheer Singh Marg, Saraswati Vihar, Peeragarhi, Seemapuri, Janakpuri, Laxmi Nagar, Shakarpur and Vikas Marg. Illegal shops were also sealed in the stretch between Madhuban Chowk and Wazirpur in Rohini and Mayapuri to Pankha Road.

While 146 shops were sealed in West Zone, 75 were targeted in Civil Lines, 62 in Central Zone, 52 in Shahdara-South, 50 in Rohini, 28 in Shahdara-North, eight in Karol Bagh and four in Sadar Paharganj.

Apart from carrying out the sealing drive, the MCD squads are also simultaneously engaged in the de-sealing exercise.

On Wednesday, shops were de-sealed in six civic zones Meanwhile, led by the Leader of the Opposition in MCD, Subhash Arya, all Bharatiya Janata Party councillors sat on a daylong hunger strike at the MCD headquarters -- Town Hall -- against the ongoing sealing and demolition drives. Demanding an immediate end to the twin drives, Mr. Arya accused the Congress of not taking any pro-active steps to end miseries of people of the Capital who were facing bulldozers and sealing squads everyday.

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