Rampur admn razes part of Jauhar varsity boundary wall

BAREILLY : The Rampur administration on Thursday demolished the boundary wall of the medical science faculty of Jauhar University, which was allegedly constructed by blocking rural road land. Orders to free this land were passed by a revenue board court.

Accompanied by a heavy police contingent, administration officials began the drive at around 2.15 pm and pulled down the boundary wall of the medical science faculty of Jauhar University founded by Samajwadi Party lawmaker Mohd Azam Khan.

“The district magistrate had served a show-cause notice to the university management after a revenue board court on January 14, 2020 ordered us to get the 17.50 bigha of ‘chak’ road land vacated by removing all structures on it,” said sub divisional magistrate (SDM) Sadar, PP Tiwari, who was present during the drive.

Apart from a portion of the science faculty, the structures allegedly built on the three metre wide ‘chak’ road also include the residence of the university’s vice-chancellor.

According to the subdivisional magistrate, as a follow up on the revenue court’s order, the university administration was served a show-cause notice on February 1 and given 15 days to respond but failed to do so after which the drive was initiated.

However, the university denied having received any such notice from the administration. “We did not receive any notice. In fact, we had moved an appeal for recall of the revenue board court’s order. Besides, another case related to the boundary wall is pending before the sessions’ court. We informed the officials about this but they did not listen to our requests and went ahead with the demolition drive,” said a press release issued by the Jauhar University.

On March 7 last year, the authorities had demolished Urdu Gate of the university on similar grounds amidst stiff resistance by local Samajwadi Party workers.

But Thursday’s operation went off smoothly with no opposition by party workers.

“This is just the beginning. A huge chunk of farmers’ land has also been grabbed for the construction of university and we will ensure that each and every inch of it is restored to them,” said Bharatiya Janata Party leader Akash Saxena, who has been fighting the case for the past two years and on whose complaint the revenue board court had passed the order.