Five truckloads of debris removed, graffiti cleared from Shaheen Bagh protest site

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Tuesday morning removed more than five truckloads of debris, broken furniture and other installations from the kilometre-long Shaheen Bagh protest site with the help of earthmovers.Senior police officers said that the goods have been seized as case property and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and public works department (PWD) have been asked to start the repair work of the damaged stretch. A survey will be conducted for restoration work to begin.Meanwhile, the graffiti on the walls at the anti-CAA-NRC protest site outside Jamia Millia Islamia were whitewashed by some unknown people on Tuesday. While no organisation claimed to having done it, Jamia students alleged that it was done by policemen who had gone there to remove the tents.A senior SDMC official said a team of 35 people used five auto-tippers to carry the waste and debris from Shaheen Bagh. Another 15 people and three tippers were used at the Jamia protest site. “These roads are more than 60-feet wide and belong to PWD, so the repair work of signage, central verge and road furniture will be carried out by them,” he added.Rajpal, deputy chairperson of SDMC standing committee, said penalties would be imposed on people responsible for causing damage worth crores to public property.A senior PWD official said that police have asked them to wait till Thursday to start work in case some retaliation occurs on Wednesday. “The money spent on restoring the stretch will be used from the maintenance fund of Delhi government,” he added.The graffiti had come up on the Jamia campus walls after the violence on December 15. The Jamia administration denied having any knowledge of the whitewashing. “The proctor told me that 40-50 people came in the morning and without informing us started to paint over the graffiti,” said Ahmed Azeem, Jamia media coordinator.Jamia’s Joint Coordination Committee member Alameen Kabir said, “The protest has been called off temporarily. We will be back after the Covid-19 pandemic ends and so will the graffiti.” JCC, in its press statement, also alleged that police took away the relief material kept for riot victims.Delhi Police, SDMC and PWD denied having any knowledge about the whitewashing.