KOLLAM: The announcement made by the Kollam Mayor, Sabita Beegum, on April 18 that all roads in the city will be cleared of unauthorised bunks within a week from that date appears to have been postponed indefinitely. Enquiries made with the concerned section in the Kollam Corporation showed that not a single unauthorised bunk had been cleared even after 10 days of the announcement.

The Mayor told The Hindu that the spot verification to identify unauthorised bunks was still being carried out. Once the process is complete, the identified unauthorised bunks will be demolished. She said that the process has been completed at the erstwhile grama panchayat areas, which had been merged with the city five years ago. Verification has started in the main areas of the city and will be completed in a week's time.

Demolition

It was at a press conference convened by the Mayor to register the Kollam City Corporation council's protest against the demolition of the civic body's authorised bunks by the Public Works Department (PWD) that the announcement on demolishing unauthorised bunks was made. In her own words, there are a good number of unauthorised bunks operating in the city. The Mayor made the announcement to make it clear that the civic body was not against any road development programme of the PWD since the Corporation would remove all unauthorised bunks in a week. ``However the authorised bunks should be spared,'' she said.

Under a road development programme at the Saint Joseph's Convent School junction, the PWD had razed 34 roadside bunks in the area. This had invited strong protests from a section of the councillors who claimed that most of these bunks were operating under licence issued by the Kollam Corporation and that the PWD had no authority to demolish them. In protest against the PWD action, all the 50 councillors had staged a dharna in front of the Collectorate on April 20. The PWD on the other had stated that the Corporation had no authority to grant permits for roadside bunks on PWD property.

Protest

Meanwhile, sources attached to the Corporation said that a section of the councillors had lodged protests with the Mayor for making the announcement on removing the unauthorised bunks and that the Mayor was under pressure to drop the move. These councillors were from the ruling as the Opposition sides. There are allegations that a section of the councillors earn ``unholy income'' by giving protection to unauthorised bunks. Under such situations, it will not be surprising if the spot verification process is made to carry on indefinitely, the Mayor said.

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