Crackdown on encroachers

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 13

With the aim of easing traffic snarls on the city roads during the festive season, the police have started registering FIRs against shopkeepers, autorickshaw-pullers and rehriwalas for encroachments. As many as 14 FIRs have been registered by the police since yesterday.

The drive has been launched on the instructions of Police Commissioner Rakesh Agrawal.

Additional DCP 1 Gurpreet Singh Sikand said the FIRs were registered under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 283 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation) of the IPC.

Sikand said the purpose of registering these FIRs was to prevent traffic jams during the festive season and the drive would continue in future.

The ADCP said apart from 10 FIRs registered by the Ludhiana police till yesterday, four cases had been registered till late in the evening today.

The police today also released a post on its official Facebook page and Twitter handle which states that all SHOs have been told to pay attention towards encroachments by shopkeepers and rehris in their respective areas, to do the rounds of their areas for an hour on foot to make sure that there were no encroachments on the roads.