The worst-affected road in regard to encroachment on pavements is Station Road running from the central station to Mool. ganj. It has such heavy traffic that there is hardly any space for pedestrians to walk without the risk of accident. Pavements on both sides of the road have been encroached upon and many people have put up stalls of earthenware pots and other articles. Not only this, people also keep cots on pave. ments, blocking all space which could be used by pedestrians for walking. These unauthorised stall-holders come from early morning and occupy the pavements till night.

Under the municipal corporation rules and bye-laws nobody can put up these stalls and if anybody does so, he is liable to be prosecuted and punished. Municipal inspectors, who are supposed to remove these encroachments and keep the pavements clear for pedestrians do not discharge their responsibility as these stalls are a source of income to them. The result is that these stall-holders have become permanent occupiers of the pavements.

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The condition of Station Road in regard to encroachments is the worst. In fact, there is hardly any road in the city, including Mall Road, which is free from encroachment. On Mall road, just near Phool Bagh a large number of vendors sit on pavements and keep them crowded by customers. This

happens just before the eye of police constables who are deputed there to keep the road clear. The attention of the civic authorities has been drawn towards the congestion and encroachments, but nothing has been done so far in this connection. Stay Order On Civic Officer's Petition

Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on June 1, granted an interim stay on a writ petition filed by Mr. M. K. Chakbast, executive officer of the municipal corporation, challenging the validity of the order transferring him to Kanpur in the same capacity.

According to the petitioner, the state Government had passed an order on July 9 under rule 25 of the Centralised Corporation Service Rules, 1966, transferring Mr. Chakbast, to Kanpur. The order was alleged to have been issued on July 9, which was a closed day and the administrator had been

asked to relieve Mr. Chakbast within 48 hours.

It had been contended by Mr. Chakbast that section 112 of the Corporation Act, which provided for the creation of a centralised service, did not affect him. Transfer of Civic Officer Stayed

On July 14 the writ petition filed by Mr. M. K. Chakbast was admitted. Mr. Justice Jagdish Sahai observed that the High Court was always reluctant to interfere with the orders of transfer. It was, however, urged on behalf of the petitioner that the transfer orders were made on the same day when the U. P. Government Gazette Extraordinary publishing the centralized Municipal Service Rules, 1966, were said to have been issued. It was further submitted that the rules could not override or repeal the statutory provisions of section 577 (C) of the Corporation Act which guaranteed the existing conditions of service of the petitioner.

The judges confirmed the stay order granted by a division bench earlier with the modification that instead of suspending the operation of the entire order of the state Government which affected similar officers of the KAVAL towns, they directed that Mr. Chakbast should not be relieved of the post and should not be transferred to Kanpur.

West Bengal

Howarh Corporation

The formation of Howrah Corporation has been deferred till December. The new civic body will have 55 members elected on adult franchise.

Bustee Development

Calcutta Corporation has formed a Stanning Health and Bustee Improvement

Committee with Dr. B. C. Basu as Chairman. According to the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Orgainsation, the total area of land covered by bustees is about 1700 acres out of 23,629 acres of Calcutta Corporation area. About 800,000 people belonging to 1,78,000 families live in bustees. It has been estimated that to acquire bustee lands it would need about Rs. 13 crores. Another Rs. 75 crores would be needed to mke improvements in the area concerned.