Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 4: Nearly a dozen kiosks were removed and seized during an anti-encroachment drive carried out by Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) here today.
The drive was carried out in the Bikram Chowk area of the city and triggered a brief protest by the affected people, official sources said.
They however said there was no law and order situation during the drive which started from Upper Gumat on May 2 and will continue till May 19, covering different parts of the city.
“We are carrying out this drive to clear footpaths of the street vendors who have set up their stalls illegally”, a JMC official said, adding that the encroachment of pedestrian ways blocks the flow of the traffic and also results in accidents.
“We have seized some kiosks and warned others during the drive carried out from Bikram Chowk to Gandhi Nagar. They have already been allotted special zones to earn their livelihood but any violation on their part will not be tolerated,” the official said, adding the Government has launched many schemes for the welfare of street vendors.
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He said the drive will continue and will cover different areas in coming days.
A man, who lost his iron-made roadside stall, claimed that he was not given any notice by the JMC even as he was running the stall since 2017 and was paying Rs 200 to the department per month.
He claimed to have suffered a loss of over Rs 1 lakh as his stall was containing many goods including cigarettes.
When contacted, Mayor Jammu Municipal Corporation Chander Mohan Gupta said that the drive was a regular feature to clear the encroachment footpaths. “The drive will continue to clear any kind of encroachment on the footpaths, so as to regulate smooth movement of pedestrians”, he added.
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