The Zebra task force of the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun has removed some roadside encroachments recently, but the municipal authorities appear to be turning a blind eye to the expanding encroachment by vendors settling stalls for the Sunday market.
In the past, the Sunday market was held at the Paltan Bazaar, but since the past few years, it is being held near lansdowne Chowk along the Parade Ground.Earlier on, the stretch of the Tibetan market road was used for setting stalls in the Sunday market, but now with the number of stalls increasing, the area encroached upon for setting the stalls has also expanded.
Now petty traders, many of them from Saharanpur and other areas of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh set hundreds of stall in the Sunday market encroaching on sides of road adjoining Indira market upto the Darshanlal Chowk, stretch of the Subhash Road and the Convent Road. It will be recalled that recently Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli had also acknowledged that encroachment in the name of Sunday market is increasing with the connivance of some municipal employees and police personnel. The MCD had planned to designate vendors’ zones in different parts of the city which would be used to hold Sunday market apart from being used by vendors regularly. However, little has been done in this direction so far.
With the number of stalls encroaching on the road rising consistently in the name of the Sunday market, traffic slows down to a crawl on the roads around Parade Ground in the heart of the State capital every Sunday.
This issue is raised periodically and elicits some limited action by the MCD and district administration, but so far the authorities have failed to take effective action to facilitate the setting up of a Sunday market organised in a way that prevents major inconvenience to the public.