The Indian Express 01.05.2013
Finally, MC smacks a six after six flops
The Ludhiana Municipal Corporation finally achieved some success on
Tuesday, after six consecutive ‘fiascos’, with the demolition drives
conducted in Sabun Bazaar, Brown Road and Jail Road (Field Ganj).
Having faced severe criticism after cancelling six demolition
drives, succumbing to alleged political pressure, the civic body finally
came back after demolishing 11 illegal structures on Tuesday.
Of the demolished structures, seven were in Sabun Bazaar, two on
Brown Road and two on Jail Road. The buildings were reportedly owned by
influential people, who refused to get their structures demolished in
2009-10.
“We had to face extreme resistance from people, who even turned
to violent. But, the police brought the situation under control, and we
managed to accomplish our target,” said Kamaljeet Kaur, assistant town
planner, Zone A, who led the drive.
Contrary to the previous six drives where around 150 police
personnel accompanied the MC team and the drives were cancelled, on
Tuesday, only 20 MC officials, 15 personnel from the city police and 15
from ladies police were successful in conducting the drive. This has
certainly raised eyebrows on why the previous drives with a large number
of police officials were unsuccessful.
“Despite the less number of police officials and pressure from
people, we were determined to not return empty handed. People questioned
us why they could not be spared if no action was being taken against
illegal building in Gur Mandi. Police had to adopt extreme measures to
control the crowd,” Kaur added.
MC demolished the structures that had reportedly encroached upon public space by 2 to 2.5 ft.
The next drive is slated for May 8 in Barewal. In March and
April, the civic body had cancelled drives in Pavitar Nagar, Gur Mandi,
Talaab Bazaar, Haibowal, Salem Tabri and Indira Nagar.