Mandeep Singh BrarCHANDIGARH DEPUTY Commissioner Mandeep Singh Brar has conveyed to the Special Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, that he was “not fully satisfied” with the way Municipal Corporation’s enforcement wing was dealing with encroachments in Sector 22. The Deputy Commissioner has given two days’ time to the civic body to put everything in the “right place”.
DC said this while he personally visited the market on Friday. Brar was accompanied by Senior Superintendent of Police Nilambari Jagdale and Special Commissioner of Municipal Corporation Sanjay Jha. Primarily it is the Municipal Corporation’s job to remove the encroachments but following orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the administration too had pitched in.
Talking to Chandigarh Newsline, DC Brar said, “I am not fully satisfied with the MC. I have asked them to ensure that designated areas are made clear for vendors and all public passages are clear of encroachments. No unregistered vendors should be allowed and strict action should be taken against shopkeepers as well who have encroached on the public land.”
Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, K K Yadav did not respond despite calls and messages made in connection with the Deputy Commissioner’s statement. On Friday, Chandigarh Newsline had reported how vendors would start removing their stuff minutes before the anti-encroachment wing would come for the drive and then they would return immediately after the enforcement agencies went away. In the three-day drive till Friday, 49 challans were issued in all even when the area is choked with encroachments.
On Saturday and Sunday, the chaos was back again. The entire area was choked with vendors encroaching upon the public passages again. Even the shopkeepers had displayed their stuff outside in the corridors and on the walls.
The situation at the market is such that in case of a fire incident, a fire tender would not be able to enter the area because all passages are jam- packed with encroachments.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed the Chandigarh Administration to remove all the encroachments from the walkways, public paths, corridors and open spaces in front of the booths, shops and showrooms within a period of one week from last Thursday. The order was passed on a petition filed by Shastri Market businessmen seeking removal of hawkers, vendors and squatters from in front of their booths at the Sector 22-C market. The one week’s time-lapsed on August 1 but the situation presented a grim picture.
The division bench of Justices Rajiv Sharma and Harinder Singh Sidhu in the order had said that the administration will ensure that no showroom owner, shopkeeper or booth owner place any material or product in front of their premises or even hang the same outside their premises.
