Residents of Mubarakpur Band village in Sambhal district took matters into their own hands on April 5, 2026, and began demolishing structures allegedly built on encroached Gram Sabha land. The action was carried out with the help of a bulldozer arranged with support from local authorities.
According to officials, the demolished structures included the Ghausul Madrasa, a mosque, and a primary school, all spread across around three-and-a-half bighas of government land. The move followed complaints that the land, recorded in revenue documents as public utility space, had been illegally occupied.
Villagers fund bulldozer, seek administrative support
The initiative was led by Haji Munawwar, husband of the village sarpanch, who approached Tehsildar Dhirendra Kumar Singh a day earlier requesting machinery for the demolition. He told officials that removing the structures manually would be slow and difficult.
After visiting the village and reviewing the situation, the tehsildar facilitated the arrangement of a bulldozer. The cost of the operation, however, was borne by the villagers themselves.
“We will bear the cost for its usage,” Munawwar said, adding that the demolition process was expected to take around 20 hours to complete.
Probe found constructions on public land
Officials said that an earlier investigation, ordered by the district administration, had found that the land in question was designated for public purposes such as sports grounds and compost pits. However, during inspection, authorities found that several structures, including religious and commercial buildings, had been constructed on it.
Following the findings, villagers were asked to remove the encroachments voluntarily, failing which legal action under relevant provisions would be initiated.
“The villagers took the initiative after realising that the structures were built on government land. They sought our support to expedite the process,” Tehsildar Singh said.
This story was originally published in theobserverpost.com. Read the full story here.
