The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun has deferred its anti-encroachment drive in Bhramawala area and will demolish encroachments here after the all India Mayors’ conference slated to be held in Dehradun on August 25. Earlier, residents of Bhramawala staged a protest at the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun and submitted a memorandum to the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Harak Singh Rawat.
It will be recalled that the MNA had visited the Bhramawala area on Thursday and directed the encroachers to evict failing which the encroachments would be demolished by the MCD on Saturday. According to the MNA, about five hectare of municipal land has been encroached upon with about 250 unauthorised constructions. “Many of the occupants had agreed to evict the unauthorised construction when we had gone there on Thursdaybut now someone seems to be exploiting them,” said Rawat. The Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli has now directed that the anti-encroachment drive at Bhramawala be conducted after the all India Mayors’ conference to be held in Dehradun on Monday. The MCD plans to park its vehicles in this area after the encroachments are removed.
Earlier, residents of Bhramawala led by the local councillor Nitu Valmiki staged a protest at MCD and demanded that the occupants be allowed to stay. They told the MNA that many of them had been living in the locality for more than two decades and had been provided water and electricity supply by the authorities.
According to municipal officials, the MCD has been removing the smaller encroachments from its lands in different areas of the city but the land in Bhramawala is one of the major areas of municipal land under encroachment. Efforts have been undertaken repeatedly many times in the past years, to remove the encroachments from this place but so far the authorities have failed to do so. It remains to be seen whether the MCD will be able to free its land from encroachment this time and keep it free from encroachment for long.