Law enforcers turn violators

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 3

Law enforcers have turned violators. In a bid to appease UT Adviser Vijay Kumar Dev, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has literally encroached upon public land in the name of landscaping and beautification outside his house in Sector 7 here.

At the cost of the state exchequer and giving the rules and regulations the go-by, the MC has landscaped two strips of land on both sides of the V6 road leading to the Adviser’s house.

Apart from planting shrubs, fancy lights have been installed on both sides of the road and the landscaped strips of land, one around 10 ft wide and the other 6-ft wide, have been demarcated with a low-height plastic fencing.

While the Adviser was out of the country to attend a summit on tourism in Berlin, MC Chief Engineer Mukesh Anand said the land belonged to the MC and the development was not new. “We have just improved upon what existed earlier,” he said, adding that the open space was hardly used for walking. “There is no traffic there,” he said.

On Tuesday, workers of a private contractor were seen installing a plastic fencing in front of the Adviser’s house. Citing cases where the MC has been laying emphasis on keeping space along roads for pedestrians, residents have questioned its dual policy. “The Adviser has been visiting different parts of the city and has asked MC officials to clean the city. However, the same MC is now violating the law,” said a city-based RTI activist, RK Garg.

He drew the attention of the officials towards various orders issued by courts on encroaching upon public places, especially open spaces along kerbs.

Raj Bhawan sets example

Contrary to the MC move to landscape the open space outside the Adviser’s house, space was left along the road for pedestrians while landscaping the open space outside the Punjab Raj Bhawan.