Most footpaths in the State capital are not used for the purpose they are meant for due to their unhindered encroachment and this is due to the dismal coordination among the officers of the district administration, police administration and municipal corporation of Dehradun, the people who are suffering a lot on this count said.
“What is further compounding things for us is the dubious role of the local politicians who go out of their ways with their protective umbrellas held over the encroachers in lieu of money, caring a damn for the hapless denizens of the city,” said Dehradun Bar Association ex-president advocate Rajiv Sharma who had also been appointed by High Court as a commissioner to conduct inspections and submit a report to the HC on roadside encroachments in Dehradun. “The shopkeepers are encroaching the footpaths with impunity by helping chosen hawkers to pitch makeshift stalls right on them,” he added.
According to him, the district administration had submitted an affidavit last year in the High Court, claiming that encroachments had been removed from about 80 per cent of roads in the city.
“This is utterly frivolous and ridiculous boast, immeasurably divorced from the grim reality on the ground,” he added
He further said that the officers of police, department, administration and municipal corporation hardly act eve after being informed through various sources.
“They choose to shirk responsibility by indulging in the pass- the- buck game. The people who are tax payers to the civic body are entitled to be informed whose responsibility it is to curb the menace. If it is the responsibility of all the three wings things must be cleared on the quantum of responsibility,” the lawyer said.
Moreover, the local politicians are inclined to pressure the officers who conduct campaign to free the encroached footpaths in the city. In fact, they create hurdles for administrative officers to help the shopkeepers to stay put.
A PIl was filed in the High Court by a Dehradun resident and court had directed Dehradun administration to free the encroached footpaths. As things did not progress much High Court had appointed then DBA president Sharma as commissioner last year.
The court had directed Sharma to submit report with video footages or photographs on the State of encroached footpaths after conducting inspection in the city. The matter is pending before the court with no date of hearing having been fixed, he added.
Sharma said that he had inspected the city and submitted report enclosed with video footages and photographs to the court. The anti-encroachment drives being launched by the corporation and other departments from time to time is not leaving much of visible impact on the ground.
Along the stretch of Doon Hospital Road from Doon Hospital till Collectorate, it was witnessed on Mondaythat the vehicle-users had parked their vehicles on the footpaths in defiance of laws.
A pedestrian Kailash Rana who was coming from Collectorate office to Doon Hospital said that there has been no footpath worth its name along this stretch. “The footpath has been gobbled up by the vehicle users as well as by electricity poles being set up haphazardly,” he added.