E-Paper
ADA engineer assaulted; cops watch helplessly
Time: Around 11 am. ADA's anti-encroachment wing led by incharge SK Arora reaches Salasar, a commercial complex on SP Marg, to carry out some demolition in a part of this building which has no proper parking except for some two-wheelers. The building also has allegedly encroached upon the road widening besides front, back, side and rear set backs.
Time: Around 11 am. ADA's anti-encroachment wing led by incharge SK Arora reaches Salasar, a commercial complex on SP Marg, to carry out some demolition in a part of this building which has no proper parking except for some two-wheelers. The building also has allegedly encroached upon the road widening besides front, back, side and rear set backs.
Heated arguments ensue between the building owners and the ADA squad following which Arora is assaulted by a Samajwadi Party leader who had rushed to the place. Inspector Civil Lines along with some cops watch helplessly making no attempt to arrest the leader who then vanishes from the scene after issuing threats to Arora to get him transferred within a couple of hours.
Undeterred Arora goes ahead. He orders the labourers accompanying him to demolish a wall in the rear of the building. While the labourers were half way through the mobile phones start buzzing and the demolition is stopped.
According to the word doing round at the spot was that some top man had directed the ADA vice-chairman to call off the demolition.
While the ADA squad had to swallow the bitter pill of humiliation--getting thrashed while performing their official duty, they had no other way out also.
But where did law vanish even in the presence of an Inspector and the police force which stood as mute spectator while an official was not only stopped from discharging his official duty but was also assaulted was the question that dogged the minds of people who saw the incident. Had an ordinary man done this he would have been put behind the bars after getting severe beating at the hands of cops.
But the ADA too cannot escape the blame for this humiliation.
Why demolition now when a big departmental store has already started functioning in this building? Why the illegal construction was allowed to take place at all.
The answer is simple. A section of ADA officials take hefty bribe and look the other way when any illegal construction starts. Once the building is completed they come again with bulldozers to terrorise the owners. In many cases they go away after demolishing a fraction of a wall or some other portion. There's a hidden message to the owner. Come again and cough out some more moolah.
After the owner toes their line again he is then pressurised to deposit the compounding fee in case the issue comes within its purview. If not, again a good amount of bribe is taken for the third time. The bribe, in totality, runs into several lakh.
Thus, by their own acts of omission and commission ADA men had been privy to all the illegalities in the name of construction or the so-called development of the city which has been marred by them in connivance with builders. While both have reaped the harvest it is the common man who has been at the receiving end.
And to add to their criticism by the people they had been following pick and choose policy while taking action against the wrong doers. A residential complex on Nawab Yusuf Road was demolished by them the other day because some VIP wanted to settle scores with some one, said sources.
A few yards away from the building which houses the office of ADA an illegal construction is in progress under the guidance of an ADA official. Work in this building is carried out during night on SP Marg in blatant violation of all existing laws. But once the second and third floor of this building is completed it will also stand in the firing line of the ADA, like Salasar.
What about the totally illegal building owned by a Samajwadi Party MP next to a cinema hall in Civil Lines.
Why ADA officials are not stopping it along with another building near a hotel in the same area which is in partnership of a ruling party minister's brother. It is because they don't have the guts, said a senior resident of the area.
