Vendors flee as drive begins 3 hours late
NEWDELHI: To decongest the arterial road connecting Sarai Kale Khan to Nizamuddin Railway Station, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation carried a joint anti-encroachment drive with Public Works Department and Delhi Police on Monday.
However, the drive started three hours after its scheduled time, giving enough time to food vendors to flee. Municipal officials said they were supposed to start the action around 9.30am but due to delay in getting police force, the drive could start only around 12.30 pm.
“The stretch is encroached by food vendors and squatters leading to massive congestion and traffic jam near the railway station. We have been received complaints in past, so a drive was scheduled in the area on Monday,” said a senior SDMC official, not authorised to be quoted.
“But due to delay in getting police force, we couldn’t catch the errant vendors. The drive will continue in future,” he said.
In North Corporation also, no drive was carried in Narela zone due to non-availability of police force, according to the spokesperson. “We have been providing them regular assistance in antiencroachment drives provided we get the requisition from the MCD in advance,” said senior police official.
On Monday, the three civic agencies retrieved 11km of roads from pedestrians and squatters. They demolished 86 permanent including ramps and staircases of commercial establishments, seized 154 temporary structures and impounded 50 vehicles illegally parked on roadsides.
Action was taken on the direction of Special Task Force constituted by the centre and tasked by the Supreme Court to remove encroachment from public land.
The South Corporation removed 27 ramps, 24 temporary sand 15 permanent encroachments most done by the shop owners in central zone. While North Corporation targeted hawkers near Delhi Gate and Red fort intersection.
“Illegal extensions done by the shop owners on roads connecting Old Rajendra Nagar to Shankar Road, Timarpur, Wazirabad, Kamla Nagar and Shahzada Bagh industrial area to Inderlok metro station were also targeted,” said the North Corporation official.
CAIT WRITES TO L-G
The Confederation of All India Traders wrote to the Lieutenant Governor’s on Monday, criticising the MCD’S action in Khari Baoli area on May 18 in which signages and tin sheds of 80 shops were removed.
“First of all these signboards are not encroachments. And even if someone has installed boards of more than permissible size then MCD should give a grace period of 15 days during which traders will themselves remove any such encroachment,” said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of CAIT.