Freed of encroachers, area along Anni national highway now illegal parking lot

Abhinav Vashisht

Kullu, January 8

After removing 42 vendors running eateries, rehris and ‘farhis’ along the national highway near the new bus stand in the Anni market, the place has now become an illegal parking lot, where majorly taxis are being parked.

WIll act if traffic jams persist

If there is a problem of traffic jams due to the vehicles being parked along the NH near the new bus stand in the Anni market then these will be removed soon. Police

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Following the High Court orders, the state highway authority had on December 17 given a week’s time to the encroachers to vacate the area. On December 28 again, it had warned them to remove their encroachments within two days or they would be forcibly vacated using bulldozers and strict legal action will be taken against violators. However, most of them removed their kiosks immediately.

Now, the vacated area is full with vehicles parked throughout the day.

The employment of street vendors has been snatched, but the problem has not been resolved.

The vendors were told to vacate the area on the pretext that due to encroachments on various places along the national highway, the road is becoming narrow, hence leading to regular traffic jams. The rising threat of accidents was another reason. However, the area is now being used to park vehicles.

As a result there is a lot of anguish among the displaced street vendors, who were not provided any alternative source of rehabilitation. Reportedly, as soon

as all unauthorised structures were removed, taxi drivers and private owners started parking their vehicles at the vacated place from the very next day.

Anni subdivision highway authority Assistant Engineer Dhan Singh Sharma said according to the High Court order, illegal encroachments had been removed from the side of the national highway near the new bus stand in Anni. “If vehicles are being parked there now, it is the purview of the traffic management plan of the local administration and the police,” Sharma added.

The police, however, said if there was a problem of traffic jams due to the vehicles being parked along the national highway then these would be removed soon.