PMC fines Top Businessmen

The Times of India Reports :-

PATNA: On Saturday early morning, Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) took to task and also fined a top businessman specialising in the sale of
jewellery for taking liberty with road as public utility item that cannot be encroached, causing inconvenience to vehicle users and pedestrians. As it is, PMC executive officer B S Verma imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on the owner of a famous jewellery shop on Boring Road M P Gupta for dumping heaps of sand, stone chips and cement on East Boring Canal Road to facilitate unencumbered construction of his residential premises. He, however, had not realised that it had been inconveniencing people and vehicles, and also making them vulnerable to accidents, Verma said. The area falls under New Capital Circle (NCC) of PMC. According to him, the PMC, for the last few months, has embarked on sustained anti-encroachment drive on the directive of urban development principal secretary Dipak Kumar and Town commissioner K Senthil Kumar. Earlier, fines worth Rs 30,000 in total were imposed on the encroachers on Exhibition Road. "The drive will continue. We want to give a message to the people concerned that they, while constructing their buildings and premises, cannot take liberty with the public utility items," Verma said. The circumstances that led to the imposition of fine on Gupta was dramatic. Gupta had earlier been warned against encroaching the road, but he paid no heed to it. On Saturday, during an inspection of the NCC area, it was noticed that East Boring Canal Road has still been encroached. The site was videographed and the NCC force called in. Gupta was called to the site. The seizure of the sand, chips and cement was ordered, whereby, Gupta relented. He also agreed to pay the fine, since the next move of the PMC would have been to lodge an FIR against him. "In around two hours, the road encroachment was cleared," Verma said, adding: "The concern of PMC, district administration and urban development department is to protect roads and its assets from encroachment. The builders or any other encroacher should know that the general public cannot be put in a state of inconvenience."