PMC puts best foot forward; paths cleared

Besides a team of civic staffers and policemen has been deployed to ensure that the vendors do not reoccupy places on the footpath at Khandojibaba Chowk in future.

PMC8217;s Kasba Peth ward office staff evicted 50 vendors operating in the vicinities of the Pune railway station, Maldhakka and Sassoon hospital. Two handcarts were seized and several huts which had mushroomed on footpaths in the area were demolished.

The civic staff from Vishrambaugwada ward office was assigned to patrol in the vicinities of Mahatma Phule Market, Shanipar and Laxmi Road and to clear various roads and footpaths for vehicular traffic and pedestrians. The patrolling team seized three handcarts and took action against 11 vendors.

The Sahakarnagar ward office demolished 50 huts at the Yashvantrao Chavan Nagar slum which had mushroomed on a vacant plot at Shivdarshan Chowk near Parvati. The staff from Hadapsar ward office towed away five broken down vehicles which were obstructing the traffic on the stretch of Pune-Solapur Road between Bunter School and More Padal.

A team of anti-encroachment department staff and policemen was deployed at Mahatma Phule Mandai to ensure that the vendors evicted from the area do not reoccupy places on various roads in the area.

The civic officials claimed that the action against vendors encroaching on various roads in Mahatma Phule Market had increased the collection of rent of stalls allotted to vendors inside the mandai. The civic administration had served notices to 111 stall owners in mandai who had not paid the rent of their stalls for nearly six years.

The dues of stall rent were totalled Rs 7,86,289. An amount of Rs 3,97,984 was recovered from the stall owners by Thursday noon. The civic officials said the stall owners could pay the pending rent because their business had flourished due to the anti-encroachment drive in the vicinity of Mahatma Phule Market.