Urban News

The Hindu 30.12.2009

GMC launches drive against encroachments

Staff Reporter

GUNTUR: The Guntur Municipal Corporation on Tuesday began a special drive aimed at clearing all encroachments which have cropped up on the main roads in the city.

The Town Planning Department personnel launched the drive in the morning by clearing encroachments with the help of the police, which included advertisement hoardings and petty shops Jinnah Tower Centre to the Government General Hospital.

Municipal Commissioner K. Ilambarithi said that the drive would continue for 15 days.

“We want to clear all obstructions on the roads, make it convenient for pedestrians to use footpaths and restore a sense of normalcy on the road. Traffic on the main roads was getting obstructed due to encroachments,” Mr. Ilambarithi told The Hindu on Tuesday.

Centre’s policy

The Commissioner, however, assured mobile hawkers making a living out of selling fruits and other items, that they would not be removed. He said that as part of the Centre’s policy of safeguarding the interests of the hawkers, the town would be divided into green, red and amber zones and hawkers issued identification cards.

Controversies

The encroachment removal drive was not without any controversies as local political leaders turned on the heat on municipal authorities to stop the drive.

“We are not against the drive to remove permanent encroachments, but we urge the GMC to take into consideration the plight of hawkers, who make a living daily,” AMC Chairman L. Appireddy said.

He met the Mayor and the Commissioner to urge them to protect the interests of the hawkers.

The issue could raise storm in political circles with both the Congress and the Telugu Desam eager to consolidate their support before the elections to the civic body in September 2010.

The civic officials admitted that they were wary of the problem and wanted to complete the drive quickly.

Indian Express 22.12.2009

Encroachments removed amid protest, dharnas

The Municipal Corporation today re-started its anti-encroachment drive and demolished more than 225 structures amid mild protests and dharnas. The drive started from the congested Lakkar Bazaar where the ramps were demolished.

The team then moved to Field Ganj area, where the alleged “pick and choose” policy of team irked the shopkeepers and hence started complaining against each other. While the complaints were going on, a few shopkeepers even started fighting with each other and they threw soda bottles on each other. However later on, when drive continued they became quiet.

The shopkeepers meanwhile had shut their shops and they opened only when the team went away. A few even showed some papers justifying the encroachment. However although most of the encroachments in this market were demolished, but a shoe stand of a gurdwara in the market was not touched.

In the scooter market at Gill Road, the shopkeepers staged a dharna when the encroachment done by them was being removed. The market association is using MC road for displaying the second-hand scooters and hence are encroaching a big part of the road.

The senior deputy mayor, Parveen Bansal, along with newly-appointed Ludhiana Improvement Trust trustees Gurinderpal Pappu and Naresh Dhingan also came to the spot. They took the memorandum from the shopkeepers and told them that a meeting would be arranged with the MC Commissioner regarding a space for scooter market.