RAWALPINDI:Trade bodies of the city have demanded compensation from the government for losing a business centre and two godowns at Narankari Bazar during a fire last Sunday.
“Compensation is essential for the survival of the affected businesses and revival of destroyed parts of the bazaar,” Sharjeel Mir, President of Markazi Anjuman Tarjan, said Tuesday.
Mir informed reporter that one shop and two large godowns comprising an area of around two kanals were filled with vast goods of decoration items that were utterly destroyed in the incident. He estimated the losses caused by the fire in the range of Rs 10 million to Rs 50 mln.
Mir said it was the most enormous fire the market had ever caught in decades.
The President urged the IECSO to immediately remove the hanging wires as traders suffered billions of rupee of losses due to incidents of short electric circuits every year because of outdated cables.
He also demanded immediate rehabilitation work of the buildings in dilapidated condition in the area to avoid any happening of such incidents in future.
Meanwhile, a shopkeeper Raza Khan said that encroachers and stall holders, with the help of corrupt officials of Municipal Corporation Rawalpindi, had occupied the whole Raja Bazar and its adjacent area illegally so that even a pedestrian could not move in the area freely.
He demanded the Commissioner and district administration of Rawalpindi to remove the encroachments from the city areas as the trade bodies of the city have demanded earlier many times.
He added the rescue teams had also faced difficulties in reaching the affected site in time, resulting in considerable loss.