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Berhampur, May 26: Berhampur Municipal Corporation has failed to keep its promise of removing all encroachments from the road.
The civic body has missed its October 2010 demolition deadline and unauthorised encroachments continue on both sides of the road from Sana Bazar to Bada Bazar, the business hub of the city.
“Though the road, as per the records, is supposed to be 35ft wide, nearly half of the road from both sides are under encroachment, causing traffic congestion. Even drains on both the sides have been encroached,” said one of the BMC officials.
“We had issued notices to the shop owners and asked them to remove their structures by October 2010. But, some of them have expressed resentment.
In August last, we demarcated the encroachments after through survey and requested them to demolish the encroached set-ups voluntarily and set October as the deadline,” said commissioner Bhim Manseth.
“Demolition of unauthorised encroachments would facilitate road widening and end traffic congestion,” he said.
Some traders of the area have expressed their dissatisfaction as they feel that the authorities have not properly demarcated the encroached area. While some shop owners have been asked to demolish 4ft, some others have received notice to demolish 6-8ft from their present possession.
“Why should there be disparity? The survey should be accurate,” said some traders who had already submitted their submissions to the corporation.
There have been several rounds of meetings among representatives of the district administration, the Berhampur Development Authority, the corporation and the chamber of commerce at office of the Berhampur superintendent of police to discuss the issue. But no solution has been found.Interestingly, most of the shop owners are quite affluent and influential too. The civic authorities have never dared to demolish the unauthorised encroachments in the area in the recent past.
As there is no designated parking area, people often park their vehicles on road, making it further congested.
People feel the corporation is targeting small-timetraders, but scared of touching the biggies. “If the corporation has the courage, it should have demolished unauthorised encroachments before removing the small vendors,” said Congress leader Pitabas Panda.
“When the corporation evicted the small traders from Kamapali through repeated operations, Sana Bazar and Bada Bazar areas were not even touched once. This is definitely an injustice to the people. One can avoid encroachme nt operations if he is influential,” Pitabas said.
