Wide roads, advantage hawkers

HYDERABAD: The road widening project may have been very successful in the city but keeping encroachers off the widened portions of these streets is proving to be a daunting task.
With the various civic enforcement wings slackening their drive against squatters, the latter are cashing in.
All departments in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) have enforcement wings — one looking after building rule violations, another ensuring construction debris isn’t piled on the roads, yet another to stop defacement of walls.Hoardings and billboards too are supposed to be policed.
However, the town planning enforcement wing seems to have turned a blind eye to the encroachments on the roads. “Overnight, encroachments come up on pavements, but there’s no action whatsoever,� an MCH official concedes.
As many as 60 roads in the city have been widened in the past five years. But the failure in keeping the encroachers away from returning has been rather glaring, the official said.
For instance, several illegal shops came up at Himayatnagar, Koti and some other places after the roads were widened, P Anand of Himayatnagar said.
Besides, there are thousands of push carts selling all types of things — ranging from clothes to edibles. There is no effort to drive such vendors off the roads, even though they slow down traffic, he said.
Two years ago MCH had weekly co-ordination visits, wherein officials of the various departments went to different places and tried to solve civic problems. But such visits have completely stopped, a senior MCH official said.
“What is required is a separate enforcement wing in the city, which should be headed by a senior IAS or IPS officer, who will coordinate and enforce various illegal activities,� he added.
The enforcement wing thus created should have officers belonging to all the departments including the police personnel, the officer said.