The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun is planning to remove the encroachment from its land at Bhramawala if the district administration facilitates the required police force.
The MCD had earlier attempted to remove encroachments in Bhramawala in August this year but following political interference and subsequent opposition of the encroachers, the corporation could not free its land from encroachment.
Recently, Additional district Magistrate (Administration) Jharna Kamthan had written a letter to the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (MNA) seeking an explanation for encroachment not being removed from this area.
It will be recalled that earlier this year in August, MNA Harak Singh Rawat had visited the Bhramawala area and directed the encroachers to evict failing which the encroachments were to be demolished by the MCD. According to municipal officials, many of the occupants had agreed to evict the unauthorised constructions then but later appeared to have been influenced by politicians into opposing the MCD.
About 250 unauthorised constructions have come up on five hectare municipal land in this area. Recently, the ADM wrote to the MNA seeking explanation for the encroachments not being removed.
Rawat told The Pioneer, “I have already replied to the letter and have also talked to the district magistrate about this. We have made it clear that we only need police force and cooperation from the district administration in order to remove the encroachments. “We will communicate our requirement to the administration and will start working on the encroachment removal in the coming days on being provided the required force,” he said.
According to 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 many times in the past years to remove the encroachments from this place but so far the authorities have failed to do so mainly due to political interference. It remains to be seen whether this time the municipal land will be cleared of encroachments.