Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) launched its month-long eviction drive in the city yesterday and demolished some makeshift shops and sheds of small businesses while ignoring the concrete structures on the way.
RCC’s Executive Magistrate M Sadekul Islam led the drive, with help from Boalia Police Station forces.
The team began the drive around 11:00am yesterday from Bindu Hotel point of Gourhanga crossing on the Chapainawabganj-Rajshahi highway.
They demolished makeshift tea stalls, signboards, and bamboo-made sheds of mobile phone shops, roadside hotels, motorcycle-repairing shops, hardware stores and electric workshops, and warned them to not work on the road area.
In a notice on Saturday, RCC asked all concerned to remove illegal structures from the roads and to cooperate with the team.
When demolishing a roadside illegal restaurant at Barnali crossing, the RCC employees removed a showcase of food. Locals complained that the officials consumed some of those foods, for which the magistrate rebuked the concerned officials.
The team further demolished a number of makeshift structures on the 5 kilometers of road joining railgate to Kashidanga bypass in the city.
During the drive, the team, however, ignored the National Life Insurance’s office staircase constructed illegally on the footpath and an iron-sheet made shed of a sweetmeat shop there. The team said to have verbally warned the insurance company authorities and the sweetmeat shop owner to remove the structures immediately.
The team also ignored staircases, concrete slopes of houses and business stores, and neon signboards of business shops including a Chinese restaurant on the roadsides around Rajshahi Nagar Bhaban.
Sadekul Islam said the illegal concrete structures could not be demolished due to lack of necessary equipments.
“The formalities for purchasing a bulldozer is almost complete and we will start working with it from the first week of October, said Sadekul Islam adding that, “we will launch drive on the same roads again for removing the illegal concrete structures.”
Meanwhile, the RCC launched its month-long drive for developing the city’s environment and for cleaning the footpaths for the convenience of pedestrians and vehicles on the roads.
