The five decades old famous eating point near Tatanagar railway station was razed during an anti-encroachment drive carried out jointly by the railway and the local police on Thursday.
'Hotel Krishn' set up over 50 years ago was taken after a court ordered for vacating the railway land. The decision was taken after court order from the Jamshedpur civil court. The South Eastern Railway authorities led an anti-encroachment drive at about 9.00 am and asked owner of the eatery Radhey Shyam Yadav to vacate the premises within 10 minutes.
The railway officials claimed that this drive will make a way for smooth flow of traffic. The policemen present on the spot removed the shop and the wares forcibly.
Policemen along with excavators and dumpers razed the hotel. The owner of the hotel approached the assistant engineer, Tatanagar Sunil Kumar Gupta and also officer-in-charge, Bagbera police station Rajesh Ranjan and the officials of the Railway Protection Forces present at the spot.
When the policemen refused to stop the drive, Yadav sat on the ground inside the hotel with a flag of Bharatiya Janata Party in his hand, declaring that he would not allow anyone demolish his hotel unless two other hotels are also not demolished. However, the policemen and railway officials removed the hotel.
Gupta confirmed to have vacated the railway land from encroachment. " We are following the orders of court. We have removed one of the three eateries set up on the railway land following a court order. The other hotels will also be removed shortly as a court verdict is likely to be announced soon," said Gupta.
He said that they will fence the vacated land soon and when the adjoining hotels will also be removed, they will use the railway land for constructing staff quarters. Officer-in-charge, Baghbera police station, Rajesh Ranjan who was present at the demolition site along with two sections of armed police for maintaining law and order during the drive, said that there was little resistance from the owner of the hotel.
"The hotel owner was aware that they would be implicated in contempt of court if resorted to any violence, the former had kept quiet," said the officer-in-charge. Incidentally, more than 100 vendors illegally occupy the pavements and the roads selling their products leaving practically no space for pedestrians to walk on the pavements while going to Tatanagar Station.
The bridge links Burmamines on one end and Jugsalai on the other and is the only road to Tatanagar Station for residents of Baridih, Telco, Golmuri, Sidhgora, Agrico, Birsanagar and Burmamines witnesses nearly 60,000 vehicles crossing it daily. The police have also asked make-shift shops and other encroachers to remove their things along the road.