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Journalism of Courage
RAJPURA, July 8: Here is an increasing trend of encroachments here and nobody is trying to check this practice. Though the local administration had tried to remove these encroachments but failed to produce the desired results because of political pressure.
The main encroached area lies in the town, where the shopkeepers have encroached upon governments land in the bazars, including Jawahar Market, Dupatta Bazar, Krishna Market, Trunk Market, Indira Market, Court Road and Mohindra Ganj. The bazars were presenting a different look because of the encroachments and also the width of roads had shrunk and the people have to pay a heavy price for all this.
Whereas Rajinder Kumar, a resident of Gobind Colony, said the township has witnessed a rising trend in encroachments recently because of political interference. Ravinder Singh, a resident of Gobind Colony, also said the municipal authorities had failed to control encroachments in the city and the anti-encroachment drive launched in the past had failed to produce positive results.
However, Capt Dhayan Singh lashed out against the encroachments and said the municipal authorities had failed on this front and it seemed that they were trying to fight it out with one hand tied to their back as they were hampered by the municipal authorities.
Kartar Singh, another resident of town, said encroachments had created a mess in the bazars here and most of the bazars presented a conjusted look due to unchecked encroachments. He said a showroom was gutted in the Jawahar Market in the recent past because of the encroachments as the fire-fighters failed to reach the spot.
Gobind Ram, a resident of the town area, said that PEPSU Board had provided space for parking of two-wheelers in the markets but now there was no space left for these parkings because the encroachers had grabbed the land by setting up kiosks to run their business.
Amarjit Kaur, a resident of Sham Nagar, said the people have to face a lot of problems due to encroachments during the festive season and added officials had failed to remove these encroachments due to political interference.
When contacted, Tirlochan Dev, president, Municipal Council, said they had initiated action against the encroachers and the anti-encroachment drive had shown good results.
