Srinagar, Oct 10:  The residents of an uptown locality in Srinagar, Allucha Bagh, have shown how the administration could be prompted to preempt certain crimes including land grab. Seeking support from the district administration, the residents of Alucha Bagh have preempted the encroachment on Government Middle School that is coming up in the area. Such moves are popularly called Halla Bol elsewhere in India.
 Following physical assault by some miscreants on one of the residents past Thursday, Deputy Commissioner Me’raj Ahmed Kakroo visited the area and ordered complete fencing of the school compound.
 According to locals some miscreants living nearby were trying to grab part of the school compound and were intimidating the residents who were resisting such attempts.
 They said on Thursday a local resident who is a government official was attacked by some miscreants for putting up legal resistance against grabbing almost half of the 5712 square feet of School area.
 “He was returning from his office when he saw some people dumping construction material in the school premises. When he objected to the encroachment scores of unruly youth pounced on him; he too joined the beating,” said a local elder.
 The residents took up the matter with the district administration following which the deputy commissioner Srinagar personally visited the spot and ordered fencing of the School in order to check further attempt to encroach the School land.
 Senior citizens of the area convened a meeting of the residents on Sunday in which the prompt response from the local administration was hailed.
 Muhammad Ramzan Rather who chaired the meeting said: “Those who were after this piece of land are taking undue advantage of security guards that have been provided to them by Police.  The authorities should take note of this. Security arrangement for one individual should not prove a source of insecurity for whole area.” Rather added that the authorities would be apprised of further encroachments alongside the erstwhile Doodganga rivulet. 
 The meeting noted with anguish that some people have constructed shacks and erected kiosks on the main road. “This is a traffic hazard. We hope that the authorities would cooperate with us the way they did regarding School.”

Lastupdate on : Sun, 10 Oct 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 10 Oct 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:00:00 IST