When corporators encroach roads

LUCKNOW: Considered to be the watchdogs of

Lucknow Municipals Corporation

and entrusted with the responsibility to see that no civic rule is flouted, corporators themselves are encroaching on various roads in the name of public facilities.

It could be a hand pump, water tanker or even their own office taking up space on the road illegally. While encroachments by street vendors and or parking can be removed easily, the ones imposed by corporators are tough to deal with because of political influence.

Almost every ward in the city is grappling with encroachments, causing obstruction in regular movement of traffic.

In

LMC

meetings, while corporators are the first to point fingers at encroachments by others, they rarely look into their own infringements. It is their violations which attract other kinds of encroachments like food vendors or create garbage dumping areas. TOI found out a few places where corporators were responsible for encroachments.

In

Narhi

, corporator Nagendra Singh Chauhan has built his office on the footpath by erecting boundaries under a tin shade. The footpath is flanked by vendors and shopkeepers illegally running shops. The place also sees a lot of garbage being dumped all day. Besides, there are around 30 hand pumps lying defunct and encroaching the roads.

Chauhan said, “It (his office) is not an encroachment, just a shaded place on the footpath to hold meetings. Where am I supposed to meet people if I don’t have a permanent office? And the hand pumps were built by previous corporators. I have written to LMC to remove them.”

The previous SP corporator of Narhi had also encroached the footpath to build an office.

In Paper Mill Colony ward, corporator

Rajesh Singh

has encroached LMC’s park to build a room.

He said, “This is not my room but for public safety. I get complaints about anti-social elements in the park at night. I have built this for a gardener who can stay here and check such elements.”