GURUGRAM: MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav on Friday said that the corporation has constituted 35 teams to check encroachments in public spaces , including roads and footpaths, across all wards in the city.A team headed by a nodal officer will be visiting each ward to identify encroachments in areas under its jurisdiction and make a list of the same. After that, a schedule will be prepared for anti-encroachment drives to demolish such encroachments. Yashpal Yadav said, “The teams will carry out anti-encroachment drives in their areas and strict action will be taken against those who do not abide by the norms. The encroachments will be removed and persons concerned will be liable to pay fines as well.”Similarly, ward-wise teams had also been constituted to look into sanitation issues, he informed.One of the anti-encroachment drives took place on Friday and a team demolished an illegal structure in Sector 23A. “A man had illegally constructed walls on a footpath and the MCG team demolished the same on Friday. He was also given a warning to not reconstruct walls again,” said an official.Meanwhile, other anti-encroachment drives were carried out against temporary structures in Umang Bhardwaj Chowk, Basai Chowk, Sector 53, Hero Honda Chowk, Subhash Chowk on Friday.MCG officials said that roadside encroachments by vendors were a major concern for them. Such encroachers often turned out to be repeat offenders and reconstructed the illegal structures after demolition drives, they said. “While we carry out anti-encroachment drives regularly, the vendors often come back. There has to be a permanent solution for this,” said an official.So, the corporation is currently working on a model where the encroachments are not just removed but the public spaces are also converted into parks or walking tracks so that further encroachment is not possible.In many cases, there are full-fledged markets on government land such as the illegal furniture market in Sector 56. MCG carried out a demolition drive at the spot recently. However, such drives often land the officials concerned in trouble with other agencies, NGOs and the human rights commission, supporting the vendors’ rights. “A recent case on the same lines is currently with the human rights commission,” said a source within the corporation.Another major challenge is checking rampant encroachments within sector markets where vendors crowd on streets, making the area unsafe in case of emergencies such as a fire.

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