Amritsar MC staff face encroachers’ wrath

Amritsar, January 6

Officials of the Amritsar Municipal Corporation (MC) faced the wrath of encroachers while on duty at Kabir Park on GT Road here on Friday. High drama prevailed with the councillors of the area supporting the encroachers. A team of the Estate Wing of the Municipal Corporation reached Kabir Park in front of Guru Nanak Dev University and had heated argument with area councillor Sukhdev Singh Chahal over the removal of an illegal kiosk.

In view of the G-20 summit in the city, the civic body has been removing illegal encroachments from main roads and markets. The team, which reached Kabir Park under the supervision of Estate Officer Dharmendrajit Singh, faced opposition from councillors and supporters. Area councillor Sukhdev Singh Chahal opposed the move to remove the illegal kiosk.

The drama continued for more than an hour. The MC officials tried to pacify the councillor and his supporters again and again that the kiosk was illegal and there were orders to remove it, but the councillor would not listen. The youths sitting inside the kiosk were appealed to come out. At last, Praveen Kumar, in-charge of the Kabir Park police post, along with his team reached the spot along with MC staff and removed the kiosk.

Two days ago, a team of the Improvement Trust, which had gone to remove an illegal encroachment in Nehru Complex, had an argument with Heera Paneer Wale. He reportedly threatened and abused the staff of the AIT. An FIR was lodged against Heera on the complaint of the AIT officials.

Estate Officer Dharminderjit Singh said they were instructed by senior officials to remove all the encroachments. “We have removed a few kiosks in the past and the drive would continue for the next few days,” he added.