The Times of India            27.12.2013  

Illegal shops demolished in LMC drive

LUCKNOW: In a massive clearance drive in zone-6, Lucknow Municipal Corporation on Thursday demolished around 25 permanent shops and removed 80 odd temporary structures encroaching on Hardoi Road from Balaganj Chouraha up to Dubagga Mandi.

Zonal officer Binno Rizvi along with her team and police force raided the stretch seizing many fruit and vegetable carts, a hospital's generator and two loaded trucks of construction material encroaching upon the road. the drive was conducted from 1 pm to 4 pm.

Officials claim this is the first of its kind drive in zone-6 where LMC has penalised permanent shops by up to Rs 5000 and small vendors by Rs 500-Rs 1000 for encroachment. They said that earlier drives didn't have much impact on the vendors as they didn't have to bear monetary loss before. They easily removed shops and returned shortly after the corporation's drive. "Once being penalized will always teach them a lesson for life and we hope they wouldn't encroach again", said Binno Rizvi.

The team had to face stiff opposition from shopkeepers of Mandi who resisted the demolition and were reluctant to pay fine to the officials. tnnWhile removing a generator from in front of a hospital which was encroaching on road, the owner of the hospital opposed the team and threatened them. "Because of the presence of police, we could control the situation soon and we took a fine of Rs 5000 from them:, added an official.