GHMC revs up drive against footpath encroachments

Hyderabad: Viswajeet Kampati, Director, Vigilance & Enforcement, GHMC said that so far 15,000 unauthorised encroachments have been removed in the city. Around 700 encroachments were removed from Ramanthapur to Street No 8 Habsiguda on Saturday. In total eight drives have been conducted so far and 15,400 encroachments removed. Some of the vendors have encroached and reoccupied the place again and they have also been removed and stern action has been taken against them, even penalties have been imposed, around 160 shops and establishments have been seized, the official said.

These drives have been taken up for the convenience of the citizens under right to walk slogan. The officials received lot of encouragement from citizens and following the action taken, citizens are volunteering information necessary for the department to curb footpath encroachments. People are also requesting us to come to their streets which is a very good sign, said the Director. It has been observed that people are willingly clearing footpaths duly realising their fault which is an encouragement to the Department and behavioural change of the citizens. The Director said that such drives would be conducted regularly on Saturdays, and if anyone is found violating rules then strict actions would be initiated against them.

The officials are taking up construction of footpaths on war footing in coordination with HMR, HRDCL.The Director said that before taking up drives with the help of the Town Planning officials, marking is being done for removal and due action is taken. It has been assessed that approximately around two and half lakhs encroachments are there under GHMC limits out of which already 15,000+ have been removed so far and the department will be on the job to remove all of them in a phased manner, Director added.

A meeting under the Chairmanship of Director General of Fire Services has been conducted on Saturday and discussions were held on how to tackle emergency situations during fire incidents. Keeping in view the fire accident that occurred at the Exhibition Grounds, the GHMC, HMWS&SB, Fire and Police Department officials attended a meeting in order to coordinate and be prepared for the summers.