Civic body removes service lane encroachments

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 19

The estate wing of the Municipal Corporation (MC) conducted an anti-encroachment drive with the help of the Chheharta police on Saturday. Vends and encroachments were removed from the service lanes in Kabir Park and Chheharta. The team of the MC also seized goods displayed in the service lane by shopkeepers.

A week ago, the MC had warned the vendors to vacate the service lane but they did not respond. As the government is about to make the metro bus operational on the BRTS track, the service lane needs vacation.

Estate Officer Sushant Bhatia, who led the anti-encroachment team, said, “There were two types of encroachment in the service lane. A large number of vendors establish stalls permanently. Secondly, shopkeepers had encroached upon the land in front of their shops. Some of them had sublet the encroached land to vendors. We have got information that they collected Rs 500 per day from vendors.”

“The vendors resisted and had a heated argument with MC employees, but the police controlled the situation. The government will operationalise the metro bus service fully so we have to ensure encroachment-free service lane,” he added.

MC officials removed almost all the vends but some of the vendors established their stalls again. Estate officials claimed that they had to visit again to remove the encroachments permanently.