LMC cancels demolition drive due to ‘unavailability’ of police force

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Municipal Corporation had to cancel its anti-encroachment drive allegedly due to nonavailability of police force in Munshipulia on Thursday, making it the 26th instance in the past 30 days when the corporation had to take such a step due to lack of police back-up.

A top LMC official said police force had not been made available to them despite the fact that these drives were planned at least two months in advance and that too, only after the approval of police had been sought.

On their part, police officials maintained that most of their force was deployed to maintain peace during panchayat polls and they couldn’t spare any men for routine anti-encroachment drives.

However, additional municipal commissioner PK Srivastava said most LMC drives ended in failure because local policemen often allowed encroachers to return once the drive was over. Citing an anti-encroachment drive carried out on Hazratganj’s Nawal Kishore Road on Tuesday, he said all the encroachers they had removed from the footpaths and bylanes returned to harass the commuters as soon as the LMC squad left due to this reason.

Srivastavs said it was the duty of the police to stop encroachers from returning in the area, but they were not keeping a check, leading to accidents, wastage of fuel and human hours.

THIS WAS THE 26TH TIME IN PAST 30 DAYS THAT LMC WAS FORCED TO CANCEL ITS DRIVE BECAUSE POLICE FORCE WAS NOT AVAILABLE