Tension prevailed in the Gole market area of Gandhi Nagar this morning over the demolishing of illegal shops on the Auqaf land by the Jammu Municipal Corporation last evening.
Sensing violence in the market, hundreds of policemen were deputed at Gole Market this morning following the demolishing of shops and rehries on the land of the Auqaf Board at Gandhi Nagar.
A team, headed by Joint Commissioner RS Jamwal, demolished shops and rehries at Gole Market, Gandhi Nagar, during an anti-encroachment drive on Wednesday evening. Objecting the drive, the shopkeepers pelted MC officials with stones. Two employees were injured and a JCB was damaged.
The market remained closed since morning to protest against the JMC action. But the JMC claims that it had warned the encroachers to remove their establishments.
“We had received some complaints that there is some parking problem and traffic chaos due to garbage dumped at Gole Market and illegal encroachments. We visited the place with a JCB to clear the garbage and also warned the encroachers to remove their encroachments. But they started pelting us with stones and we had to take strict action against them,” said RS Jamwal, Joint Commissioner, MC.
“If we had the intension to remove the encroachments, we would have gone with the police. They forced us to demolish their encroachments,” he added.
He said the JMC would put a barbed wire in that area and ask the Auqaf Board to make a parking lot in that place for the market.
The market remained close in protest against the MC action till afternoon and hundreds of policemen were deputed at Gole Market.
On the complaint of Joint Commissioner, JMC, a case under Sections 353, 332, 147, 148 and 427 of the RPC has been registered against the mob at Gandhi Nagar police station.
Tension prevails at Gole Market after crackdown on illegal shops
