After tragedy, NR to remove encroachers, raze quarters

Lucknow: The Northern Railway (NR) has decided to remove encroachers from its nearly 1,000 dilapidated abandoned railway quarters in the state capital that have been illegally occupied by either friends of railway staffers or families of retired personnel. Even after several notice and reminders, the occupants have failed to vacate the properties. However, after the death of five persons at Jail road based abandoned railway quarter in roof collapse on Friday night, the NR officials have decided to launch a drive soon.Divisional railway manager of Lucknow division of NR, Manish Thapliyal told TOI: “The deaths were a wake-up call for people to leave the abandoned quarters immediately for their own safety. We will give two weeks’ time to all illegal occupants to vacate the railway properties which would will be erased.” Sources said there were around 1,500 abandoned railway quarters in the NR jurisdiction in Lucknow, out of which over 500 were demolished. But the, civil department of railways is yet to hand over the list of the remaining quarters, including the one in which Satish Chandra and his family were killed — located on Jail road in Anandnagar area, to divisional material manager office, so that e-tendering process could be initiated for demolishing them. “On paper these abandoned quarters are unfit to live in, but still occupants have managed to get access to power and water supplies. When a structure is declared unfit, its power and water supplies are disconnected permanently. A probe must be done to find out the role inspector of work (IOW) who is responsible of all functional as well as abandoned railway quarters. Why didn’t he reported to his superiors about power and water supplies in these abandoned quarters. Further, those who live in railway quarters have to pay house tax. So, who was collecting these taxes every year,” questioned a senior railway official.On Saturday morning, the TOI team saw several such abandoned structures occupied by people.

10 abandoned cars removed

The Greater Chennai Corporation has removed 10 abandoned vehicles from the Panagal Park area in T Nagar as part of its ongoing initiative. The drive, inspected by Chennai mayor R Priya, identified 16 vehicles for removal, with six being claimed by owners and the remaining 10 being taken away. The abandoned vehicles will be auctioned off, and their current location is the Pallikaranai dumpyard.

Councillor visits nursing quarters

A municipal councillor in Chandigarh has visited the nursing quarters following complaints from residents. The quarters, built 50 years ago, have not been renovated since. During the visit, officials were instructed to carry out urgent repairs. In other news, a nurse at a civil hospital in Ludhiana has voluntarily retired after being assigned the duty of preparing the duty roster. This follows action taken against hospital employees for negligence resulting in a patient's death.

Mrunmayee, Himangi steer NBYS to quarters

Nutan Bharat Yuwak Sangh (NBYS) emerged victorious in the Asmita Khelo India U-17 girls basketball championship, defeating the second team of hosts Dharampeth Krida Mandal (DKM-B) by 27 points. Mrunmayee Sathe and Himangi Nimbulkar led the way for NBYS, scoring a combined 25 points. In other matches, DKM-A, SNG-A, GKM, NKM, and NASA-B also secured wins in the tournament organized by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and Sports Authority of India (SAI).

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