Gondia councillor ends protest after shopkeeper agrees to remove steel railing after Diwali

Gondia, November 4: A steel railing put up on the road in front of Gujarati School in Railtoli, in the Nagar Parishad area, has drawn objections. The railing was installed by a shop owner, and the situation amounted to a direct challenge to the administration. Several other people are said to have encroached on the same road in a similar way.

According to the available information, the owner of the shop of Vaishali Rajpurohit in front of Gujarati School has put up a steel railing on the main road. Those using the road are facing great inconvenience as a result. Local councillor Chandrakumar Chute strongly objected. He demanded that the encroachment be removed immediately and, on this demand, sat on a protest at the spot today. He took an aggressive stand against the illegal construction and came out on the road.

On hearing of the protest, councillor Lokesh Yadav reached the spot. He took the shopkeeper's side and, along with members of the traders' association, spoke to the protesting councillor, Chandrakumar Chute. Seeing the matter escalate, Nagar Parishad president Sachin Shende also came to the spot at once. He assessed the situation and clearly directed the owner of the Vaishali Rajpurohit shop to remove the encroachment from the road immediately.

Meanwhile, office-bearers of the traders' association cited the festival season and asked for some time. Talks were held in the presence of the association's president, Sanjay Jain, and former councillor Sunil Tiwari. It was then agreed that the encroachment would be removed by the shop owner after Diwali. On this assurance, reached through the mediation of the Nagar Parishad president and with the consent of the traders' association, councillor Chandrakumar Chute withdrew his protest for now.

However, anger remains high among local residents over such open encroachment on the road. People say that occupation of the road like this causes difficulty to those who use it every day. All eyes are now on whether the encroachment is actually removed after Diwali.