UC survey: Dhok Dalal plagued with crime, encroachment

Drug den operates in abandoned hospital, poultry market on amenity plot while a builder has eyes on graveyard

RAWALPINDI: The sparsely populated Union Council (UC) 37 Dhok Dalal is faced with numerous problems like lack of clean drinking water, education and health facilities, encroachment and land grabbing to the extent that a residential project has protruded into the final resting place of the local people.

A powerful builder has encroached upon the graveyard and the area dedicated for funeral prayers adjacent to it, local residents told Daily Express.

UC 37 comprises Dhok Dalal, Kashmir Colony, Mujahidabad, Safdarabad, Ghazni Colony and Mohalla Akal Garh.



Besides encroachment, there is an illegal poultry market and a number of cattle pens in Dhok Dalal, which literally means commission agent’s village.

Nevertheless, the rural area is more notorious for open sale of drugs. A rising number of addicts also mean more crime on the street. According to area residents, armed robberies and mugging is a norm in Dhok Dalal. There is an incomplete structure of mother and child hospital where work stopped 10 years ago.

Today, this vacant incomplete building is a haunt for drug peddlers, addicts and other criminals, locals said.

Local govt at work

UC Chairman Latif Zar Khan while talking about the union council said that work on repair and construction projects worth more than Rs100 million is underway.

The Daily Express survey team saw work in progress on repair of streets, sewerage system, gas pipeline, water supply and electricity network.

However, Khan said, encroachment on general bus stand, Ghazni Road Hen Market, Khayaban-e-Sir Syed and Eid Gah block the flow of traffic.



He said that old street lights are being replaced with LED while the streets are being repaired and water supply network improved.

The UC chairman said that four new power transformers and 22 electricity poles have been established in the area to regulate voltage of electricity.

Regarding encroachment, Khan said, efforts are being made to solve the problem. As for the drug dens in his area, Khan said that the police have always been asked to act against criminal activities.

The vice chairman of the UC, Muhammad Safeer Khokhar said the union council has only one public dispensary in one in Kashmir Colony and the second one is under construction in Safdarabad.

To improve the water supply in UC 37, the local government was digging three new tube wells and plans to set up two filtration plants too.



Meanwhile, labour councillors Raja Muhammad Anwar and Muhammad Rafiq; general councillors Tanveer Ahmed, Aftab Khan, Anjum Iqbal Mughal, Chaudhry Shahid and Shahid Ali Khan also express their views.

They said that an illegal poultry market was running on a public amenity plot in the residential area of Ghazni Colony.

They demanded of the city authorities to remove the market and set up a public park in its place.

The councillors said encroachment have created difficulties for traffic and pedestrians alike coming from Chongi No 4 Chowk to Pero Dhai road. The locals are faced with a difficult situation. They said that there are no parks and play grounds in the union council. They demanded that a union council office and library be constructed.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2018.