Following the recent order of the Planning and Sports minister Dinesh Aggarwal, Municipal Corporation of Dehradun and the District Administration have jointly started to make efforts to remove illegal encroachments from the river banks in the State capital.
Recently while inspecting areas along the Bindal river, Aggarwal found illegal encroachment being done on the Bindal bank and riverbed, which he said was a major reason for concern. He also stated that some people were purposely settling migrants along the riverbank which is not safe as such areas are flooded during the rainy season. He immediately instructed the MCD and district administration to make joint effort to remove the encroachment from the river bank and riverbed.
However, Mayor of Dehradun, Vinod Chamoli, said that the MCD has already started its work and also formed a committee in coordination with the officials of the district administration to look into the matter. He added that the officials concerned have started their work and are also marking the encroachments on the riverbanks. He said that the work of removal of encroachments would be started once the marking task is completed. Meanwhile, District Magistrate, BVRC Purushottam said that he will look into the matter and facilitate necessary action.
It is worth mentioning here that a nexus involving the land mafia and politically connected persons is believed to responsible for facilitating encroachments along the river banks and river beds in the State capital. The banks of the Rispana and Bindal have been heavily encroached upon and the width of the channel of these two rivers has been substantially narrowed due to the encroachments which are now moving onto the riverbed. There have been attempts in the past by the authorities to remove these encroachments, but officials on the condition of anonymity, state that political interference has prevented effective action from being taken in this regard so far.