LMC serves notice for demolition of pucca police post at Aminabad crossing

The Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) has sent a notice to the station house officer (SHO) of Aminabad police station to remove the pucca post constructed at the Aminabad crossing. According to the notice, served on Friday, if the encroachment was not removed within 15 days, it would be demolished and the cost would be recovered from the police.

A two-storey pucca police post has been constructed right at the busy Aminabad crossing in Lucknow.(Deepak Gupta / HT)

Now, mayor Sanyukta Bhatia has also sought a detailed report from the LMC in the matter. “I will take this up with higher authorities,” she told HT on Sunday.

Construction on the police post -- spread over 550 square-feet -- started towards the end of 2019. However, the LMC woke up only after one floor of the post became operational and started contributing to daily traffic jams due to vehicles being parked nearby and locals erecting still more stalls around it.

Mahesh Chandra Varma, engineer, Zone I, said, “According to rules, no one can construct any structure in the middle of the road. They (Aminabad police) don’t have any map of the building that has been passed by the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA).”

He further observed, “When we have to remove encroachment, we take the help of the police. But if the police carry out illegal construction, then who will help remove that?”

Another municipal corporation official explained: “The notice was served as they (Aminabad police) came up with a permanent structure at the crossing. They have constructed a room, a toilet, a bathroom, a urinal outside, a staircase and a verandah. This sort of a planned construction at such a busy crossing is sending out wrong signals, which will only promote more encroachment in the city.”

Notably, the Aminabad police had earlier said that the post was constructed with help from locals “for their safety” and for “removing encroachment” from the locality.

Before this construction came up, police used to maintain a wooden kiosk at the crossing. But despite the cops’ presence there, encroachment continued to increase with more stalls mushrooming in the area.

Such rampant encroachment has aggravated the already chaotic traffic situation in Aminabad, which is one of the most crowded localities of the state capital.