The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Encroachments removed from Tirupattur bus stand

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Sunday, Jan 06, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Encroachments removed from Tirupattur bus stand

Staff Reporter

Eviction has never been a continuous operation: residents

No prior notice issued, say encroachers
Police found it difficult to divert traffic owing to encroachment on arterial road

TIRUPATTUR: Encroachments at the Tirupattur Bus Stand were removed amidst police protection on Saturday.

The operation was carried out in the presence of Tirupattur Sub-Division Sub Collector Ashish Kumar.

According to the residents, the encroachers had occupied every bit of road space. However, they attributed the encroachments to the poor economic status of the people living in the nearby villages.

Sources said that most of the people living in the rural pockets were small-time vegetable vendors. As the municipality did not allot a separate place for their business, they had occupied road corners and the bus stand to sell their products.

The State Highways had evicted encroachers for “expanding the road space” along Krishnagiri Main Road. But the operation was not continuous and it failed to yield the desired results.

The police found it difficult to regulate traffic owing to the encroachments on the arterial road. The Krishnagiri Main Road was more prone to accidents.

Though the encroachers had occupied a lot of space along this road, the municipality did not take stringent action against them, the sources said. Officials of the State Highways said that they were not in a position to evict the encroachers without prior notice.

“Such an operation will be successful only if the local politicians do not interfere. But, this is not the case in Tirupattur as people from the villages form a sizeable vote bank,” the officials said.

Residents dismissed the eviction as eyewash. Every time the civic body carried out an operation, the encroachers managed to come back the very next day.

The eviction had never been a continuous operation, they alleged.

The residents said that they were happy when the State Highways removed the roadside encroachments. But, the Krishnagiri Main Road, which was the main bus route to Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Salem, Tiruvannamalai and Bangalore, was once again encroached upon, they said.

The petty shop owners evicted from the bus stand on Saturday complained that the drive was launched without a prior notice.

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