Udupi City Municipal Council personnel on Saturday morning cleared an allegedly unauthorized hotel building belonging to the President of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI)
The hotel ‘Zara Family Restaurant’ owned by SDPI District President Naseer Ahmed and his brother Basheer Ahmed on plot belonged to the Jamia Masjid on Mosque Road.
In 2018, the CMC had ordered the construction to be demolished. However, the owners got a stay order on the demolition order.
Nazeer Ahmed told THG that their hotel was being demolished due to political vendetta. “Just because we supported the recent Karnataka bandh in regards to the Hijab issue, and gave a statement in solidarity with the hijab, our hotel was being demolished.”
“I had applied for permission from CMC but did not receive anything. I went to court when the matter of demolishing the building was being discussed. The case is still pending in court. There are many other such buildings that are violating the rules of the municipality but they only targeted us,” Ahmed said.
However, CMC Commissioner Uday Shetty has refuted the claims of political vendetta. He told THG, “We demolished the structure as per the procedure. This was an unauthorized building that was constructed in 2018. Subsequently, CMC issued a notice to them to remove the structure. They approached the civil court and got a stay order. Recently, that stay was vacated and we took action to demolish the illegal structure. The hotel owner themselves removed the structure.”
On Saturday, CMC personnel in large numbers were present to undertake the demolition process. Police security led by Town Police station Sub-inspector Pramod Kumar and Udupi Deputy Superintendent of Police Sudhakar S Naik were deployed to oversee the security arrangements.
