Vadodara: A razing drive in Subhanpura area of the city went awry when security and encroachment removal personnel of Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) badly beat up two men and roughed up a woman on Saturday afternoon. VMC officials claimed that the victims tried to attack workers and security personnel on duty.The incident took place when the VMC team was razing encroachments and illegally erected structures in Subhanpura. A woman and three others, including her relatives, allegedly objected to the drive. The VMC team was trying to raze an unauthorized shade outside a house from where a family operated an eatery.In the melee that followed, a youth was badly beaten up by the personnel who VMC officials claimed were on contract. The youth was first roughed up outside the van that is used by VMC encroachment teams to commute. He was then made to sit in it even as one man beat him up with what seemed like a stick or a light pipe. He was also roughed up and his hair pulled by another man who was present inside the van.A video footage of the incident shows that the woman rushed towards a man from the VMC's razing squad and roughed him up. In turn, the man too manhandled the woman. The trio that was opposing the razing drive was clearly outnumbered by VMC's personnel.While personnel of the city police were present during the drive, they are not seen in a better part of the footage circulated widely on the social media. The footage shows only one policeman later, but he too seemed largely inactive during the melee.VMC's encroachment and security director Dr Mangesh Jaiswal said at around 12 noon, the officials had instructed the family that the encroachments should be removed. "We wanted to give them sufficient time to do so. When the team returned at 1pm, no work had been started and it asked the family to do so. At this time, two persons rushed towards the members of the team with pipes to beat them up and one lady also tried to manhandle a person on duty," he said.VMC officials held that the incident was triggered by those objecting to the drive. "I have seen the footage and sought a report regarding the incident. We will take action based on the report," said VMC deputy municipal commissioner Prakash Solanki.Opposition Congress party has also slammed the incident. Opposition leader Chandrakant Shrivastava said, "Who gave the right to the staff to take the law in its hand? Citizens were beaten in police presence. Action should be taken against the policemen on duty too," he said.

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