LUDHIANA: After directions from the high court, the municipal corporation (MC) authorities have finally turned their attention towards bulk encroachments in the city as the top brass of the civic body has asked officers to decide the course of action against these encroachments so that better usage of public land could be ensured.

According to available information, hearing a petition regarding illegal encroachments on January 22, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had asked MC officers to file their reply within a week regarding action being taken by it to remove encroachments in areas like the scooter market at Gill Chowk, car bazaar in Feroze Gandhi market, kiosks at Dholewal Chowk and near the ITI college on Gill Road.

Sources revealed that most of these encroachments had taken place as the officers of tehbazaari branch had been issuing slips to these encroachers from time to time. But now, after the directions of the high court, the MC top brass had started mulling options to deal with the situation.

Likewise, MC commissioner AK Sinha, mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura and senior deputy mayor Praveen Bansal along with a battery of other officers had gone to these sites to assess the situation and decide the future course of action.

Sources revealed that apart from removing these encroachments, the MC is also mulling the idea of allotting some other space to these people for rehabilitating them as they have been earning their livelihood from these places from last many year.

When contacted, Bansal said that apart from the orders of the court the main motive of their visit was to take stock of the situation so as to ensure optimum use of the public land.