Officials of the Corporation and the Department of Highways launched encroachment eviction drive here on Tuesday and unauthorized advertisement hoardings and encroachments were removed.
Though roads in the city have been narrowed by illegal structures and unauthorized hoardings and the public are demanding stringent action against the violators, no step was taken for the past few years to remove these encroachments. Even though the encroachment eviction drive was conducted in a few places in the past, officials did not touch the encroachers who enjoy political and community backing. Since the Corporation’s biased action triggered murmurs from various quarters, especially from the victims of the partial drive, the encroachment eviction drive was kept in cold storage for the past few years.
When the joint encroachment eviction drive resurfaced on Tuesday in all four wards after Commissioner B. Vishnu Chandran warned that all unauthorized hoarding would be removed, it did not evoke any positive response from the public as they are desperately waiting for impartial drive.
Even as Mr. Vishnu Chandran monitored the drive, the unauthorized hoarding and the illegal structures installed in front of the business establishments were removed. In Palayamkottai Zone, the unauthorized billboards were removed between Murugankurichi Signal and District Court Complex on Tiruchendur Road.
Led by Assistant Commissioner of Melapalayam Zone Sugi Premala and Assistant Executive Engineer Lenin, the officials removed the unauthorized structures from Melapalayam traffic island to Vaeinthaankulam new bus-stand and then along the Thiruvananthapuram Highway. Similar drive was carried out along S.N. High Road, Madurai Highway, Pettai Highway.
“The drive will continue… The Commissioner is considering initiating legal action against those who paste posters on the boards erected on the streets by the Corporation and in public places, bridges as done in Chennai. Soon, the city may get a new look,” said a senior official.
