SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad Jan 21: Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC) bulldozed over 100 of shops and Gumtis that were illegally constructed on the footpath of both sides of the national highway-32 in the city, from IIT Indian School of Mines gate to Police Line today.
The DMC official said that encroachers had been given prior notice one week ago to remove their illegal shops from both sides of NH-32. When they did not follow the directive, DMC got them removed from its machinery.
Though DMC had arrived with heavy force to tame any protest from encroachers, the operation was carried out peacefully.
Encroachment of shopkeepers and vendors had made four lanes on NH-32, from IIT ISM gate to Police Line in the city, a congested passage for vehicles and pavement travellers causing traffic jams and road accidents almost daily in the evening.
This is the second time in 8 years when an anti- encroachment drive has been launched on NH-32 near IIT ISM. District administration had removed encroachment on NH -32 in 2014 when the then President of India Pranab Mukherjee had visited the Indian School of Mines.
NH-32 germinates from GT Road at Govindpur of Dhanbad to Jamshedpur crosses from the heart of coal city. But owing to the encroachment, it has turned into a death trap for vehicle owners.
A senior DMC official, who was supervising the anti- encroachment drive, said that claimless shops and gumtis, which had been lying illegally for a long time on road sides, have been removed to clear the path. “The campaign against encroachment would continue till all city roads are cleared,” he said.
The official added that before removing the encroachment, DMC had conducted a survey of the footpath vendors sitting on both sides of NH-32 in which it was found that some vendors who had been allotted shops, had purposely put their shops on rent and again set up the shops on road.
Vendors, who were removed from the spots, strongly protested the action of DMC and said that they would prefer to go jail rather than die with family in starvation.
“We do not oppose encroachment drives. DMC removed the gumtis and permanent structure from the footpath but should have spared vendors who sit in the morning and evening for selling vegetables on the sides of the road,” said Anil Mahto, one of the vendors.
