BACK TO SQUARE ONE: Defying the order of the district administration, private taxi owners resumed parking in the Super Market area in Gulbarga on Wednesday.

GULBARGA: The drive launched by the district administration and the Gulbarga City Corporation against encroachment on city roads and government land suffered a setback on Wednesday when private taxi drivers parked their vehicles on the same spot in the busy Super Market area that they were asked to vacate a few days back.

The taxi drivers, under the banner Hyderabad Karnataka Vehicle Drivers' Association, threatened to immolate themselves if the police or the district administration removed them from the area.

Accommodating hawkers

The district administration and the City Corporation authorities had shifted the taxi stand from the Super Market area to the vacant space in front of the Gulbarga Fort to decongest traffic and also to use the space used by taxi drivers in the Super Market to accommodate pushcarts of hawkers.

Congestion

At present, hawkers park their pushcarts in all available space on the roads in the busy Vegetable Market and Super Market area causing congestion.

When corporation officials moved in to remove encroachments in the taxi stand area, there was little protest from taxi drivers.

They voluntarily moved to the new space allotted to them in front of the Gulbarga Fort. However, the taxi drivers' plea now was that the space near the fort was not sufficient.

Apart from the old stand in the Super Market area, they also want another piece of land on MSK Mill Road in front of the Industrial Training Institute for another taxi stand to accommodate all private taxies plying in the city.

Memorandum submitted

In a memorandum submitted to the Deputy Commissioner, the Hyderabad Karnataka Vehicle Drivers' Association said that parking of vehicles in the old taxi stand in the Super Market area would not cause any hindrance to movement of vehicles.

No senior official of the district administration or the city corporation was available for comment. Deputy Commissioner Pankajkumar Pandey, who is also the administrator of the city corporation, is in Bangalore to attend the Deputy Commissioner's conference convened by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Senior police officials, who participated in the drive against the encroachment, said that they could not act against taxi drivers since there was no direction from the district administration. The matter is likely to be settled only after the return of the Deputy Commissioner on Friday.

Dharna staged

More than 200 private vehicles are now parked in the old taxi stand at the Super Market. Some of the drivers also staged a dharna.

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