Municipal Corporation Roorkee is conducting a drive against encroachments these days. The municipal corporation on Thursday launched a drive to remove encroachments as part of the scheduled program. During the eviction drive, a shopkeeper fell down from a tin shed, after which the people present there got agitated. They started throwing stones and sticks at the workers of the municipal corporation. Even the driver was beaten up by anti-social elements by climbing onto the bulldozer. The municipal team returned after the incident. The municipal corporation is filing a complaint against the unidentified assailants.
A day before i.e. on Wednesday, an encroachment was removed from BT Ganj market. On Thursday, as part of the pre-scheduled anti-encroachment drive, the municipal team arrived at old tehsil Machhi Bazar with a bulldozer. The corporation started removing the encroachments from one end of the road. However, most of the shopkeepers in Machhi Bazar had already removed the encroachments themselves after getting notice for the same. The team moved towards Rampur Chungi removing the remaining encroachments with a bulldozer.
First the illegal encroachments were removed from the right side of The Sapna Talkies Road. After this, the team started removing the encroachments from the left side of the road from one end. The bulldozer stopped to remove the encroachment from outside a shop. During this time, the shopkeeper of that shop climbed on the tin shed in front of the shop and started unloading goods kept there. But the tin shed was weak, which suddenly broke, causing the shopkeeper to fall down and hurt him. Seeing this, the crowd present there suddenly got agitated, and some anti-social persons from the crowd started throwing stones and sticks at the bulldozer. Some of them climbed onto the bulldozer and started beating the driver. However, at that time the bulldozer was not even being used, it was standing still waiting for the shopkeepers to move away. The shopkeeper had fell on his own as the shed was weak, it was not struck by the bulldozer yet. Somehow the policemen present there pacified the crowd and saved the members of the eviction team.
Police have detained a few youths on the spot. Seeing the angry crowd, the municipal team returned leaving the drive incomplete. The bulldozer driver sustained injuries in the assault. Assistant Municipal Commissioner S P Gupta, Naib Tehsildar Pitam Singh, Tax Inspector Ravindra Panwar, Mridul Kumar, Vipin Sharma, and others were present on the occasion.
Roorkee Municipal Commissioner Vijaynath Shukla said, “Those who vandalized the bulldozer and beat up the driver will not be spared. A case is being registered against the unidentified assailants in the case. There was a constant asking for the removal of encroachments on behalf of the corporation. When the encroachment has not been removed, a drive has been taken up to forcibly remove the encroachments. The young man who had fallen from the tin shed, at that time the bulldozer . Unnecessarily some anti-social persons have tried to vitiate the atmosphere.”
