RAWALPINDI:The Municipal Corporation Rawalpindi (MCR) was set to launch a massive crackdown on the encroachers, occupying public places and creating problems for pedestrians and motorists in the city markets and on roads from next week.
“We will make the city free of encroachments, for which a detailed survey has already been completed,” Chief Municipal Officer, MCR Ali Abass Bokhari vowed while talking to reporter.
He said on the directives of Commissioner Rawalpindi Syed Gulzar Hussain Shah, a full-fledged survey to identify the encroached areas and obstacles had been completed for the swift operation and ensuring smooth flow of traffic in the garrison city.
Ali said the MCR was making arrangements to shift the illegal stall vendors to alternate places so that this poor segment of the society could earn a respectable livelihood for their families.
In the first phase, Ali said the Trunk Bazaar, Moti Bazaar, and Bohr bazaar would be made a model artery by purging all kinds of encroachments.
He informed that notices had been issued to the encroachers in the said bazaars to remove encroachments within a week; else, not only their goods would be confiscated, but they would face cases.
The Municipal officer said the corporation could not allow anyone to encroach the state land, but it would ensure that poor vendors were not deprived of their livelihood by allocating specified areas for doing business.
To make the operation successful, the CEO said the city had been divided into various sectors where each sector-in-charge would be responsible for any encroachment.
He said all stakeholders including local parliamentarians and traders were being taken on board to make the drive result-oriented.
” No political pressure will be borne in this regard.” However, the CEO warned the encroachers to voluntarily remove their illegal stalls and clear the state land immediately; otherwise, their goods would be confiscated, and FIRs would be registered against them.
Meanwhile, the trade bodies of the city expressed grave concerns over increasing encroachments and demanded the departments concerned to remove illegal encroachments affecting their business.
Talking to reporter, President Markazi Anjuman Tajraan Sharjeel Mir said that all major markets and bazaars of the city were facing encroachment and traffic congestion, and due to traffic congestion, customers, especially women, had stopped coming to the city areas for shopping.
President said that the trader’s associations had taken up the matter with the district administration in a comprehensive manner to eliminate encroachments and reduce traffic congestion.
He said that relocation of markets outside the city was the only way to reduce traffic congestion in the town, adding that businesses had been ruined due to encroachment and heavy traffic.
“Shifting of the wholesale markets along the Ring Road will not only help ensure smooth flow of the traffic but also tackle environmental pollution”, he added.