Encroachment near Patna Junction. Telegraph picture

Patna, July 13: Rekindling smooth traffic movement hope in the state capital, the high court today directed the Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) to evict encroachers from the city streets.

Expressing its displeasure over the slow removal of encroachments on the busy roads, a division bench comprising Justice P.C. Verma and Justice A.K. Trivedi asked the SSP to free them of encroachers as early as possible. The order was issued during the hearing of the PIL filed by Barun Kumar Sharma and some analogous petitions seeking removal of illegal encroachments. The court would review the situation during the next hearing, tentatively a month later.

The court said stern action would be taken for failing to comply with the order. It said contempt proceedings would be initiated against the central range (Patna) deputy inspector-general if the directive was not followed.

Holding the station house officers (SHOs) concerned responsible for removing encroachments in their respective areas, the division bench directed the cops to evict all the illegal squatters along the roads.

The government counsel submitted that removing encroachers was an uphill task and cannot be carried out with the help of the city SP alone. Rather, the job should be entrusted to the SSP for proper execution of the anti-encroachment drive, he said.

The court also directed Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) to clean the sewerage system and roads as early as possible. Besides, it asked the corporation to ensure stray cattle did not loiter on the city streets. It asked the civic body to capture the stray animals like dogs, monkeys, cows, bulls.

On the illegal khatals in the state capital, the division bench directed PMC to come out with a plan on shifting them beyond the city limits. The corporation should conduct a comprehensive survey having details of the number of illegal khatals in the city and their area. It should comprise the number of cattle in the khatals and the area PMC would require to shift them.

Rejecting the PMC’s prayer for three months’ time, the high court posted the matter for hearing after a month.

Appearing for one of the petitioners, Sunil Kumar submitted that despite repeated orders of the court, illegal khatals continued to flourish in the state capital, virtually making it difficult for the people to even walk on roads in peak hours.

On May 4, the court had directed the district administration and PMC to conduct videography and click still photographs of the roads encroached by the illegal occupants, including khatal owners. The officers had submitted the documents on the subsequent date of hearing.