Cuttack, June 8: Police has turned the heat on various illegal activities in and around the Badambadi and Angul bus terminuses here.

Cops also razed 33 ticket counters that were operating illegally from both the bus terminuses last night.

"The drive has been undertaken to put a check on illegal ticket selling outlets," said deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora.

Arora told The Telegraph: "The ticket counters were creating traffic congestion and the personnel at such outlets were carrying out extortion at Badambadi and nearby areas."

Arora said that earlier, the Odisha State Road Transport Corporation officials were asked to get rid of the private bus ticket counters.

Badambadi terminus has always been a source of easy money for criminals who forcibly collect excess parking fee, control the timing of the buses apart from regular extortion from the bus operators.

As part of the ongoing crackdown, the police had earlier arrested Pramod Patra alias Bhuan, a key partner of gangster siblings - Sushant and Sushil Dhal Samant - on February 21.

Bhuan, the former secretary of the Cuttack Private Bus Owners' Association, is also accused of extortion and charging excess parking fees from various bus operators.

A senior official said that two separate cases, including one by the Angul Bus Owners' Association at the Badambadi police station in connection with the collection of excess parking fee and extortion, were lodged on May 25.

Cops have arrested 11 people based on the FIR lodged by the Angul Bus Owners' Association.

In another development, a joint eviction squad led by the traffic police cleared roadside encroachments from Dolmundai to Pallamandap via Badambadi today.