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Adjoining the fetid Kukrail Nala or open drain in the heart of Lucknow is Akbar Nagar, a working class settlement home to about 2,000 families.
For several months, residents of Akbar Nagar have lived in fear of losing their homes, as the city’s municipal authorities seek to demolish the settlement for a proposed riverfront project.
On 29 May 2023, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials of several departments and government agencies such as the Lucknow Development Authority, the Nagar Nigam or the municipal body, the department of urban development, the Jal Nigam, and the forest and environment department to prepare a report on the revival of the Kukrail river, which runs 25 km from the Kukrail forest before emptying into the Gomti river, carrying with it waste from the neighbouring residential areas.
Adityanath also instructed the agencies to study “how encroachment can be removed from the catchment area of the river”.
In August 2022, the state government passed a proposal to establish India’s first night safari in Kukrail forest, taking inspiration from Singapore, and to construct a riverfront plaza along the Kukrail Nala, including a jogging track, butterfly park, fishing facilities, rainwater harvesting systems, and a ghat or steps to the river especially for prayers during the annual Chhat Puja festivities.
In April 2023, the government of India’s Central Zoo Authority (CZA) gave an in-principle approval to the project for a night safari and wildlife park in Kukrail forest.Once the project kicked off on 1 December 2023, officials began to work on a feasibility study.
On 21 December, the first bulldozer rolled into Akbar Nagar, but before the demolition work could begin, the Allahabad high court’s Lucknow bench ordered a stay.
Ravidas Mehrotra, the Samajwadi Party candidate contesting the Lok Sabha election from the Lucknow constituency against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajnath Singh, alleged that the BJP government had “sold” Akbar Nagar to a private player.
Read more - https://article-14.com/post/in-lucknow-a-poor-neighbourhood-is-being-razed-for-a-riverfront-plaza-despite-a-stay-order-from-the-high-court-6632f55272fa0