Chandigarh administration vacates passage encroached upon by GMSH-16 chemist

Besides clearing the public passage, the Chandigarh administration also submitted a written complaint to the station house officer (SHO) of Sector 17 police station to file an FIR against the GMSH-16 chemist for encroachment of the passage and posing a serious risk to human lives and public property.

Around five months after the UT administration had found that a chemist had illegally extended a shop at the Government Multi Speciality Hospital Sector-16 (GMSH-16), Chandigarh, by merging the adjacent passage, the UT administration finally vacated the encroached passage and restored the load-bearing wall on Wednesday.

Around five months after the Chandigarh administration had found that a chemist had illegally extended a shop at the Government Multi Speciality Hospital Sector-16 (GMSH-16), Chandigarh, by merging the adjacent passage, the UT administration finally vacated the encroached passage and restored the load-bearing wall on Wednesday. (Keshav Singh/ HT)

Besides clearing the public passage, the UT administration also submitted a written complaint to the station house officer (SHO) of Sector 17 police station to file an FIR against the chemist for encroachment of the passage and posing a serious risk to human lives and public property.

After the Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday stayed the order passed by the lower appellate court and gave liberty to the Chandigarh administration to lease out the chemist shop number 6, the UT health department on Tuesday issued a fresh notice to chemist Sunil Kumar and asked him to immediately vacate the public passage and restore the load-bearing wall by noon of February 15.

“Though the chemist shop was required to be kept open 24x7, Sunil Kumar had locked the shop on Tuesday evening after getting the notice. The department waited for his response till 12.15 am and, thereafter, cleared the public passage and restored the load-bearing wall. The whole exercise was undertaken by a team of officers of the health department with the support of the engineering department of UT administration under the police protection. An executive magistrate was also deputed by the district magistrate to maintain law and order at the location,” UT health secretary Yashpal Garg said.

The exercise was undertaken on the risk and cost of the ex-lessee and the health department is computing its cost, along with penal rent/damage charges for encroachment of public passage.

The UT health department also asked the chemist to hand over physical possession of the chemist shop (number 6) by 10 am on February 17.

The UT administration also opened bids for the new lease of the shop on Wednesday (February 15), till March 9, at the minimum bid of ₹10,00,000 per month.

“The UT administration had informed the high court that the administration is contemplating lodging FIR in the matter of extensions in the lease period and also in the matter of encroachment of public passage. Considering the huge rush of patients and their attendant, the encroachment of public passage might have caused havoc in case of any unfortunate incident of fire, earthquake or other disaster,” Garg said, adding that a complaint has been sent to the police.