Patna, July 15: Action against encroachments in the state capital is yet to be taken even two days after a high court order.

Police say they haven’t done anything as they are yet to receive the court directives. The civic agency says they are still to chalk out plans for taking action.

“We still have not received a copy of the recent directive. But we are going to expedite the anti-encroachment drive in the coming days. Station house officers are carrying out regular patrolling in their respective areas to ensure that encroachers do not return,” said Alok Kumar, the senior superintendent of police, Patna.

On Wednesday, the Patna High Court division bench of Justice P.C. Verma and Justice A.K. Trivedi had ordered the Patna police chief to free the city of encroachers as early as possible. The order was issued on a PIL filed by one Barun Kumar Sharma and some analogous petitions seeking removal of illegal encroachments.

Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials said they would comply with the directives in the future, though they don’t know exactly how since they don’t have a plan of action for it.

“The commissioner is not in town but a meeting is most certain to be held regarding the action plan for obeying the directives. Our chief engineers, along with the executive officers, conduct routine activities to prevent encroachment in all circles of PMC. As far as loitering of stray animals is concerned, the civic body will surely conduct a drive to put a curb on it. Some action plan is likely to be devised for relocating the cowsheds currently being run within the city limits. However, a clear picture would emerge only after the arrival of the commissioner,” said Chandrima Singh, additional municipal commissioner.

The court had also directed the PMC to clean the sewerage system and roads as early as possible. Besides, the judges told the corporation to ensure that stray animals, including dogs, monkeys, cows and bulls, did not loiter on the city streets.

Stray animals are a common sight in many areas of the city and are often a nuisance for residents. “Earlier we had only dogs on the streets, but recently a notorious monkey also gets into our homes every now and then. We had a problem dealing with the dogs, cows and bulls but the monkey menace has sparked a wave of fear among residents here,” said Ravi Srivastava, resident of Ram Nagari Colony.

On the illegal khatals (cowsheds, the division bench had directed the civic corporation to come out with a plan on shifting them beyond the city limits.

At present, the encroachment problem plagues many areas of the city, including Hathuwa market, the stretch below Rajendra Nagar Bridge, Mangles Road, Station Road, Bailey Road, the vicinity of the state secretariat, Rukanpura and Jagdeo Path.