Remove encroachments: HC

patna: a division bench of the patna high court comprising justice nagendra rai and justice r s garg on wednesday asked the patna dm to be ruthless in removing encroachments from roads. the bench put special emphasis on the removal of encroachments from the road linking the rajendra nagar overbridge to the new bypass road. the bench also heard at length measures taken by the authorities to start the bus stand along the new bypass road.road construction department (rcd) secretary s k sharma, patna dm deepak prasad, patna municipal corporation administrator a b prasad and patna sp (traffic) ashok kumar singh were present in the courtroom. the patna dm informed the court that the clearance of the encroachment would require heavy bulldozers and a large contingent of police force. they will be deployed after conclusion of the municipal polls, he added. the bench, however, shot down his proposal to turn the existing bus stand at hardinge park into a local bus terminus and categorically decreed that the park be re-developed. justice rai also directed the pmc administrator to pay salaries to the employees soon. unless that is done, no expenditure other than day-to-day expenses shall be made by the corporation. a cross section of lawyers complained about rotting garbage on the city roads. they said the corporation does not have any moral right to collect any tax as it was doing no work. justice garg asked the pmc administrator how his organisation went about removing the waste in patna. he was dismayed when pmc’s counsel chandrashekhar informed the court that they had only two bulldozers in working condition. justice garg said that elementary mathematics would show that patna generates lakhs of tonnes of garbage every day and its disposal needs concerted planning and effort. the lackadaisical attitude of the pmc had led the patna high court to comment that the patna nagar nigam had become patna narak nigam. the rcd secretary informed the court that the repair of roads in s k nagar will involve expenditure of about rs 10 crore. the expense was earlier planned by the government, but rajya sabha mp kapil sibal promised to foot the bill from the local area development fund. the fund now has to be sanctioned by the government and the process will take two months. the bench allowed him the time sought for getting the approval. however, lawyer rahul priyadarshi pointed out that the rcd surrendered almost rs 65 crore meant for repair of roads in the last financial year.