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Ambika Sharma
Tribune News Service
Solan, September 11
The officials of the municipal committee (MC), Nahan, in Sirmaur district are gearing up to undertake the second phase of the demolition drive on September 16 in the town following high court directions.
As many as 21 encroachments, including smaller structures like boundary walls, staircases, sheds, ramps, gates and kiosks, were demolished in the first phase which was undertaken in July this year. Since only small structures had been razed, the drive was peaceful. Adequate police posse had been stationed there to avert any untoward incident.
The encroachments were razed from the areas like Kutcha Tank, Mohalla Haripur, IDSMT Complex, Gobindgarh Mohalla, MC Colony, Amarpur Mohalla, Balmiki Basti and DIC Colony.
The committee officials had identified 280 encroachments in the town out of which 88 had been demarcated. These also include big buildings that came up in the last about 10 years. The emergence of such structures has put a question mark on the functioning of the authorities who had turned a blind eye while they were coming up.
Executive Officer, MC, Nahan, Ajmer Singh, said about 65 persons, whose structures fall under the ambit of encroachments, have submitted their building maps and they were being verified. Those found as per the maps would be passed and their cases would be compounded as per the norms while others would be demolished.
This work has, however, been hit with the state government transferring the junior engineer from the MC. A request has been made to allow the officer to complete the work till September 20 as the drive was being undertaken on high court directions. A request has also been made before the state government to allow another JE hired on outsource basis to assist in this work as it has to be completed in a time-bound manner, informed Singh.
He added that as many as 34 structures, either partial or complete, had been erected on government land. These include 14 on the MC land and 20 on state government land belonging to various departments.
About 176 structures would be razed in the second phase of the demolition campaign. Such buildings include bigger structures. Many building owners have raised more storeys without permission. The committee officials have a challenging task at hand in ensuring smooth operation. The district administration will have to take precautions like restricting the assembly of people and ensuring surrender of arms from the residents as a precaution as had been done in the first phase.
Many people had started demolishing the encroached structures on their own so as to avoid damage to the remaining structure. The officials have welcomed such a step as it would save them from considerable hassle.
To be carried out on Sept 16
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