Patna Municipal Corporation officials returned empty-handed from Srikrishna Puri on Wednesday during a raid on unauthorised commercial establishments on residential plots facing protest from traders.
Even after rounds of dialogues that continued for around six hours, the civic body officials could not do much. The shopkeepers also obtained an order from Patna High Court that apparently emboldened their position.
“Despite prior public notice, we were unable to seize any unauthorised commercial establishments at Boring Road on Wednesday because of protests by shopkeepers. So far as the court order is concerned, it only stated that the matter should also be heard by a division bench (that passed similar order in the case of Narendra Mishra versus the state of Bihar and others CWJC No. 8152 of 2013),” said Sheshank Shekhar Sinha, PMC additional municipal commissioner (in-charge), revenue and sanitation.
While referring the shopkeepers’ petition (CWJC No. 14430 of 2013) to the division bench on Tuesday, the single bench of Justice Jayanandan Singh quoted Section 340 of the Bihar Municipal Act, 2007, that contemplates a notice to the individual and a time frame allowing him to file a reply.
Last week, PMC commissioner Kuldip Narayan issued an order that all commercial activities on residential purpose land at Patliputra, Srikrishna Puri, Srikrishna Nagar and Rajendra Nagar should be stopped within 72 hours from the date of its public announcement.
Sources claimed that public notice regarding the same order was issued in pursuance of Section 325 of the Bihar Municipal Act, 2007.
On Wednesday, civic body officials along with a small contingent of around 12 police constables and a magistrate appointed by the district administration arrived at Boring Road around 11am. Sources claimed that they wanted to shut down eight unauthorised shops along the southern flank of Boring Road between Yamuna and Krishna apartments. But they faced aggressive protests right from the beginning. Civic body officials also seemed complaining about poor support from the police.
“What could we have done? We were surrounded by angry shopkeepers and the magistrate, who was to look after smooth implementation of the seizure order, also fled within a few minutes,” said a PMC official.
Nitin Navin, the MLA from Bankipore, who was spearheading the dialogues on behalf of the shopkeepers, said the PMC action was arbitrary. “Prior notices should been served to the individual concerned,” said Navin.
