Noida: Encroachments, traffic jams bigger problems, say industrialists

The industrialists were speaking at the police-industry coordination meet organised in the run-up to the UP Investors Summit 2018 scheduled to be held in Lucknow on February 21-22.

Discounting the prevailing law and order situation in the district that could hold back investors from choosing Gautam Budh Nagar as a destination to set up projects, representatives of various industries association said the major put-offs are encroachments and traffic jams.

Noida Industrialists interact with officials and the police during a meeting on Thursday.(Virendra Singh Gosain/HT PHOTO)

The industrialists were speaking at the police-industry coordination meet organised in the run-up to the UP Investors Summit 2018 scheduled to be held in Lucknow on February 21-22.

Additional director general (ADG) (law and order) Anand Kumar, ADG, Meerut Range, Prashant Kumar, inspector general of police, Meerut range, Ram Kumar, Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate BN Singh, deputy inspector general of police, Gautam Budh Nagar, Love Kumar and over 200 industrialists attended the meet on Thursday.

The meet was held to instil confidence among industries on the law and order front and to also get feedback from industries to improve policing in the district. The police highlighted their achievements in the last 10 months in curbing crime and the industrialists, by and large, seemed to be buying it.

Giving details of the proactive approach of the police that helped in bringing down crime significantly in the district, DIG Love Kumar said that besides containing petty crimes such as snatching of phones and chains, van and cash loot have fell remarkably in the last nine months. “While some were hurt in encounters, many criminals were sent to jail. Four criminals had their bails cancelled,” he said.

Kumar said the basic idea behind organising the meet was neither to rest on the laurels nor to find faults with each other. “The objective is to improve our functioning with the exchange of ideas with the industry representatives,” he said.

Noida Entrepreneurs Association president Vipin Malhan said there has been considerable fall in crime in the last eight to nine months. “Police have been able to contain crime to quite an extent. Barring a couple of cases, there have been no extortion calls in the last five to six months. What else can explain it better than four criminals on bail having their bails cancelled as they feel safer inside jails,” he said.

However, he said the more worrying issue than crime is encroachments that cause traffic jams. “All 30-metre wide roads have been reduced to have 12-metre width owing to encroachments by kiosks, vends, etc., across the city. It takes over an hour to cover a distance of a few kilometres,” Malhan said.

He said an investor who gets stuck in a jam will never think of investing here. “It will be quite discouraging for him to realise that the movement of his employees and raw material will be hampered in a city that is full of encroachments. I am sure if encroachment is checked, there will be no jam in the city,” Malhan said.

He also urged the authorities — Noida authority and police — to hold the station house officers, police post in-charge and engineers (project engineers and junior engineers) for any encroachment in their area.

Expressing concern over encroachments across the city, Ravi Bansal, a representative of Greater Noida Vyapar Mandal, said recently encroachments were removed from Sector 110, streamlining traffic but the situation was back to square one after a week.

However, district magistrate BN Singh advised industrialists to not expect too much from police. “Their role is to maintain law and order. Don’t expect too much from police. They will not be able to deliver. Checking encroachment is a municipal function that is to be taken care of by the Noida authority. Delivery of services will be faster if you identify the appropriate agency and approach them,” he said.