Officials of the Shivamogga City Corporation on Saturday cleared the encroached portions of footpaths in the Garden Area locality here.
Owners of hardware and scrap material shops along the third cross of the Garden Area used to keep their materials on footpaths, causing inconvenience to pedestrians. Some traders had constructed staircases and installed display along the footpaths, causing problems for parking the vehicles, which, in turn used to result in traffic snarls every now and then.
A team of city corporation officials, led by its Commissioner A.R. Ravi, began the encroachment clearance drive at about 8 a.m. A pokland machine was pressed into service to remove illegal structures.
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A large number of policemen were deployed to prevent any untoward incident from happening during the encroachment clearance drive. Deputy Superintendent of Police Ram Arasiddi supervised the security arrangements.
Earlier, the city corporation had launched a similar encroachment clearance drive in the Gandhi Bazaar area on April 22. The city corporation had also issued notices to shop-owners in the Garden Area to clear the encroachment voluntarily, five days ago.