Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) conducted an anti-encroachment drive on Main road near Big Bazaar on Friday to get congestion free traffic round the clock in the area. The Civic body squad equipped with earth-mover machines and dumper trucks went ahead to demolish unauthorized possession of gifted lands by multi-storey buildings from flyover to Sujata Chowk on the day.
The RMC team, led by City Manager (encroachment), demolished unauthorized possession by multi-storey buildings with shops like luis Philippe, Big Bazaar and Planet Fashion on Friday. Shop owners were seen collecting tiles fixed in extended unauthorized lands up to roads after demolition.
City Manager (Encroachment) Amit Kumar said on Friday that the civic body was committed to keep area encroachment free, and regular monitoring will be done after the drive to make sure that no one repeated illegal activity of encroaching gifted lands. He said that the drive would continue around Siromtoli Chowk and other areas where commercial buildings had encroached lands in front of them causing severe traffic jams.
Notably, the drive was conducted after Jharkhand High Court directed the RMC on Thursday to get all the gifted lands in city encroached by multi-storey commercial buildings freed from encroachment by May 9 and present the proof of the same with undertaking and supported visuals on the next hearing of the matter which is scheduled on May 10.
Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice PK Mohanty, who shared his experiences of being a victim of traffic jam in city, had said during hearing of the case that a number of busy roads and market places had become notorious for traffic jams around them only due to their illegal encroachment of lands along with roads.
Meanwhile, RMC workers were seen more active on roads than other days on Friday after the city was declared far behind in Swachhta Survey 2017 from municipal areas like Chas (Bokaro), Dhanbad and Jamshedpur on clean city index released on Thursday by the Union Government. The city couldn’t retain even its 67th position grabbed last year in same survey, which has also left RMC officials disturbed. Though RMC Deputy Mayor Sanjiv Vijayawargiya said on Friday that the city performed well on few areas, he assured that the civic body would leave no stone unturned to stand better next year.