Having demolished encroachments along the road from ISBT to the Clock Tower, the authorities will now prepare to demolish roadside encroachments from the Rispana Bridge to the Prince Chowk and from there to the Court Road. However, skeptics point out that simply demolishing unauthorised constructions will not yield the desired benefits unless the authorities also clamp down on temporary encroachments which occupy footpaths and roadsides in various localities of the provisional state capital.
In the recent past, the authorities had undertaken an anti-encroachment drive on the directions on State Urban Development minister Madan Kaushik. About 350 unauthorised constructions were demolished in the first phase of this anti-encroachment drive along the roadside from the ISBT to the Clock Tower. Recently, Kaushik directed officials of various departments concerned to identify encroachments along the road from the Rispana Bridge to Prince Chowk and from there along the Court Road. The authorities are expected to start work on this second phase of the anti-encroachment drive in the near future.
Observers welcome action against encroachments but also point out that demolishing the unauthorised constructions along the roadside is only part of the effort required to gain the desired benefit.
The authorities also need to ensure that the space freed from encroachment is not occupied again by unauthorised constructions and used for the intended purposes. In the recent past, the Dehradun Mayor and Dharmpur MlA Vinod Chamoli had questioned the role of the police in cases wherein unauthorised constructions were built again soon after being demolished by the authorities.
Apart from such cases, observers point out that the authorities are also ignoring the temporary encroachments being set up regularly by shop owners and roadside vendors on the footpaths and roadsides in various localities of Dehradun. A local businessman wanting to remain anonymous opined that the authorities are ignoring the temporary encroachments on the roadsides by members of the business fraternity.
The police did take some action to regulate the vendors in the Sunday market but even then such encroachments are rampant in most localities of the town.
“What is the use of demolishing and removing some unauthorised constructions and encroachments if the space freed is taken up by the same or other encroachersIJ The authorities are fully aware about the extent of such encroachments but have so far failed to act effectively against them,” he said.