Finally, the Municipal Corporation authorities have cleared the way for one leg of Lakkar bridge towards Society cinema by demolishing 68 shops, including two MC offices. Offices of birth and death records and accounts section was running from these offices.

The record of MC offices was seen scattered here and there when the demolition was done and later the staff was seen busy in collecting the registers and files out of the debris. Till the time of going to the press, the stock was being shifted to zone A and B offices where the space had been allocated to them.

As the files were dumped it would take some doing for the staff to put the files back in order. Most of the files however were already in soiled condition because they were ill-maintained in these unsafe buildings.

The staff meanwhile were on the job to shift the stock till the time of filing this report.

The shops which were encroachment on the roadside were also demolished and the debris was being cleared quickly. Although the shopkeepers were running their shops on encroached land for the past many years, but still they have been told that they would be given shops below the bridge.

The construction of one part of the bridge will be ready in next four months and hence the shopkeepers will be given space below the bridge. “Till then, they can set up their phari on roadside where the space is empty and we will not disturb them,” said assistant commissioner Vinod Sharda.

... contd.