Jamshedpur, May 17: East Singhbhum district administration launched crackdown on encroachers at the busy Sakchi-Bistupur road near Sakchi police station and also removed illegal vendors near Old Court in Sakchi.
The drive led by Dhalbhum SDO Suraj Kumar along police and Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee special officer Dipak Sahay as the magistrate razed around 12 illegal shops set up alongside pavements on the road near Sakchi Jama Masjid using a JCB payloader.
�We have re-launched the drive.. The drive was conducted to free the road. There are several shops which are situated attached to the boundary wall of the Sakchi Jama Masjid. We did not removed this shop as the Sakchi Jama Masjid management sought time till May 25 for removing the shops on their own failing which we will have no option but to dismantle them too,� said SDO Suraj Kumar.
According to sources in the mosque committee, the management committee of the mosque after the Friday prayers (May 20) will give an ultimatum to the shop owners to remove the shop before the deadline. A fine in excess of Rs 41,000 was collected during the drive today.
�We want the Jusco management to reclaim the areas cleared of encroachment. They will be putting up barbed wires and start work on preparing parking bays in these areas,� added SDO.
Suraj Kumar sub-divisional officer, Dhalbhum, also made a surprise inspection of Sakchi market this afternoon. Kumar went to Sakchi as a section of foot-path vendors had started setting up their make-shift shops in the alleys of the marketplace. The district administration has decided to conduct weekly monitoring of commercial hubs at Sakchi and Bistupur to inspect illegal extension and encroachment by shopkeepers.
Dhalbhum SDO said that they have been receiving complains that the vendors had have restarted selling their products on footpaths while shopkeepers and retail establishments put up extensions on drains and lanes at commercial hubs even after eviction drive by administration at Sakchi and Bistupur market the shopkeepers are flouting the guidelines.
�We did our best to clean the market of illegal extensions and pavement vendors at Sakchi and Bistupur. But still vendors and shopkeepers have started violating laws,� said Kumar.
The SDO further said that they would be conducting weekly monitoring of the commercial hubs along with JNAC officials and local police officials to stop recurrence of encroachment.
