Hockey player Sagu Davar said that there was a clash in which his shirt got torn.
Bhopal:
A hut of national level hockey player Sagu Davar and his family was vandalized during an anti-encroachment drive in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh on Monday.
The 18-year-old full-back is said to have tried to set himself on fire after the incident, but he denied it. The player of the state’s junior hockey team instead claimed that other women, whose huts had been demolished, had poured kerosene on them.
“The local administration suddenly came and started demolishing our huts, where we have been living for decades,” she said.
Ms Davar said they had asked for two-three days to clear the land on their own, “but they went ahead with the demolition before we could take our belongings.”
He said that there was a clash in which his shirt got torn.
Davar said, “Just because we are poor, it doesn’t mean that injustice will be done to us. I will not leave this place until an alternative accommodation is built for my family.”
Sub-divisional magistrate Bihari Singh said the anti-encroachment drive was going on for the last six months as the land on which the huts were built belonged to the local stadium of the education department.
“Once freed from encroachment, the land is to be used for construction of a sports hostel for promising sportspersons. All the people living in slums have been allotted alternate land in Alavada Khedi village of Mandsaur district,” the official said. “
He said that the administration has all the records which establish that the encroachment was removed only after adequate hearing of the residents in the present tehsil.
“What happened on Monday during the removal of encroachments was a pressure tactic to delay the process of making public land encroachment-free,” Mr Singh said.