Shops being demolished during the eviction drive in Sambalpur. Telegraph picture

Sambalpur, May 12: Tension gripped the city during the eviction drive being carried out by the municipality with residents alleging that the civic authorities were behaving in a biased manner.

Agitated roadside shopkeepers and members of Sambalpur Bar Association today alleged that the municipality authorities were sparing a shopping mall on the Ashoka Talkies Road, which had encroached the road and insisted that the structure be demolished.

Though the eviction drive has been going on in the city for the last month, people alleged that some parts of the city such as, Ashoka Talkies Road, along which some big shops and shopping malls are located, were spared.

“We are supporting the eviction drive and we wanted the drive to be free from partiality,” said Pramod Rath, president of Sambalpur Bar Association.

“We have been opposing the partial attitude of the municipality because the encroached structures owned by rich people and big businessmen are being spared,” he said.

Keeping public resentment in mind, the municipality officials started the eviction drive on the road from Laxmi Talkies to Ashoka Talkies today. Tension mounted when the eviction squad left a shopping mall. The people present there alleged that the shopping mall had encroached around 12 feet into government land. They also insisted that the unauthorised structure of the mall be bulldozed.

Eventually, the bar association members forced the municipality officials to demolish the encroached structure of the shopping mall.

As a huge crowd gathered in front of the shopping mall causing traffic jam and law and order problem, police resorted to a mild lathicharge to disperse the mob.

However, sub divisional police officer Dillip Kumar Deo denied that a lathicharge took place. A senior official of the municipality denied the allegation of partial treatment. “We have demolished all the encroached structures,” said the official.