CHHATTARPUR: A large number of local residents, including women, took to the streets on Thursday, to protest the opening of a liquor shop in the busy residential area on Satai Road. The shop has been opened by the side of the Mansarovar School. A large crowd gathered outside the shop, raising full-throated slogans demanding its shifting. The protesters squatted on the road, leading to a traffic jam. Hundreds of vehicles got stranded. The protestors began singing Ramdhun.
As soon as the administration was informed, SDM D.P. Dwivedi, in-charge CSP Laxman Anuragi, Civil Lines TI Arvind Kujur and Tehsildar Alok Verma reached the spot. They tried to persuade the people to give up their protest. But the demonstrators refused to budge. They said that they would not end their dharna till they got a concrete assurance that the shop would be shifted. There were heated arguments between the police and administrative officers and the protestors. SDM Ramesh Bhandari reached the spot and assured the protestors and at 5 pm he would arrange a meeting of the liquor shop licensee and a delegation of the local residents with the collector Ramesh Bhandari. The shop will be kept closed till then.
After this assurance, the chakka jam was lifted. In the evening, a delegation of the residents including Anand Sharma, corporators Neeraj Bhargava, Abhishek Pathak, Lale Shivhare, Manoj Dube and BJP media in-charge Arvind Bundela met the collector at his residence. The collector assured the delegation that the liquor shop would be shifted to some other place within two days. He also told the protestors that they should try to evolve solutions to problems through dialogue rather than resorting to chakka jam.
