Encroachments by shopkeepers
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 10: In a Public Interest Litigation filed by Jagdish Chander Gupta highlighting the illegal encroachments by the shopkeepers and other unknown persons in the JDA Shopping Complex, City Chowk Jammu and also in the adjoining areas, Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Sindhu Sharma has directed the respondents to come out clearly with the action plan drawn for removing all the encroachments.
When the PIL came-up for hearing, Senior AAG S S Nanda, counsel for the respondents, submitted that filed affidavits have been filed mentioning that Rules under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 have been notified to be implemented from 29.01.2021 and so is the Model Scheme framed there under.
After going through the affidavit, DB observed that the Rules and the Scheme are not sufficient to take care of the menace of encroachment by the shopkeepers. “One of the status reports reveals that 242 notices were issued to the encroachers for the removal of encroachments but the outcome of the notices has not been informed so far”.
Accordingly, DB directed the respondents to come out clearly with the Scheme as to the action plan drawn for removing all the encroachments by the shopkeepers who have extended their shops on the public way and how the respondents wish to tackle the problem so that the encroachments once removed may not occur again.
DB further directed both the counsel appearing for JMC and UT to file necessary affidavits in this regard within three weeks. “It also appears that Jammu Development Authority (JDA) had issued 38 notices to the shopkeepers having shops in JDA Shopping Complex City Chowk, Jammu who have encroached the corridors but again the final outcome has not been intimated”, the DB said and directed JDA to apprise the court about it by filing an affidavit by the next date.
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