Continuing with it’s effort to make Government land free of illegal constructions, the local administration on Sunday demolished as many as 10 houses and under-construction compound wall razed in Bagan Area under Sidhgora police station area of the city. Both the houses and compound wall were set up in an unauthorised way on the land under Tata Steel lease area.
The newly appointed Dhalbhum sub-divisional officer Suraj Kumar, along with the demolition squad comprising deputy superintendent of police (headquarters-I) KN Mishra, officer-in-charge of Sidhgora police station Rajdev Singh and, about 50 armed policemen and four excavators were involved in the job.
The team pulled down the compound wall being set up around a plot of land measuring more than two acres.
The administration asked all the small vendors, including meat stall and other shops for removing their make-shift structures. Subsquently the squad took a turn toward a locality called China Garden and Shiv Singh bagan area in Agrico under the same police station area.
At China Garden, the administration partially demolished an under-construction three-storeyed building, which belonged to one Bhupendra Singh. The team also demolished a newly built house which belonged to BJP activist Bipin Kumar Singh and later they evicted as many as seven houses in Shiv Singh bagan.
Notably, all the which were demolished were located at a distance of less than one kilometre away from the residence of BJP leader and Chief Minister Raghubar Das.
“We want to continue with our drive to make city encroachment free. We had complaint by the Tata Steel against the land encroachers. We had served notice prior to the drive so that the unauthorised persons may remove their house-hold belongings from their places,” said the Dhalbhum SDO Suraj Kumar. He said they would lodge FIR against those who had tried to encroach upon the vacant Tata Steel land.
“There were some initial protests before. There is a matter of 86 bustees set up on Tata lease area in the city. The matter is now pending at a higher level of the State Government for consideration. But as per law no one can set up new houses in any of these 86 bustees,” the Dhalbhum SDO said.
The increasing encroachment on the Government and Tata Steel lease land area particularly on busy market areas has become a matter of concern for the district administration.
Kadma, Bistupur, Sakchi and Jugsalai, which are the busiest areas of the town, over fifty fruit vendors and vegetable sellers have encroached the road and there are always a traffic jam as the fruit vendors have occupied one forth portion of the road, making difficult to move the heavy vehicles.
