Chandrapur: Bengali Camp Chowk road shrinks daily to encroachment, administration silent

A strange scene plays out every evening at Bengali Camp Chowk in Chandrapur city. Around six in the evening, the wide road at the chowk suddenly begins to narrow, because of the crowd that keeps gathering there. This chowk lies on an important route connecting Mul and Ballarpur talukas, and a wine shop and bar also operate here. As soon as the sun sets, the crowd outside this shop grows so large that the 40-foot-wide road shrinks to just 15 feet.

This chowk is a well-known accident blackspot in the city, where several accidents have already claimed lives in the past. Despite this, there has been no change in the attitude of those running the wine shop and bar. Every evening, these people occupy a large part of the road, causing severe difficulty for drivers and pedestrians, especially women, trying to pass through. Heavy vehicles, buses, cars and bikes all have to risk their lives to get through this narrow stretch.

The most surprising part is that after buying liquor from the shop, many people sit in the empty space nearby and drink openly, and all this happens right in front of the office of Zone No. 3 of the Chandrapur Municipal Corporation. There is no one there to stop these people from sitting with bottles and snacks right at the office's doorstep.

BJP district general secretary Manoj Paul has so far submitted more than 20 representations to the administration regarding this encroachment. He contacted the district collector, the excise department, the municipal corporation and the traffic control department, but was met everywhere with just an expression of "helplessness". No department took responsibility for taking action. Now an angry Manoj Paul is preparing to take to the streets directly, and has warned that he will soon launch a sit-in protest.

Local residents say that those running the wine shop and bar are openly flouting administrative rules, and this is no longer hidden from anyone. The question is whether officials and staff of the administration are afraid to act against these operators, or whether there is some "understanding" between them. Citizens themselves have now started asking this question, and the time has come for the administration to answer it.