Abbottabad Town Municipal Authority out to bulldoze C&W Colony

Pushcart owners allege cantonment board spared owners of illegal plazas

ABBOTTABAD: Abbottabad Town Municipal Authority (TMA) has issued notices to the occupants of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Communication and Works (C&W) colony to vacate their houses otherwise the town authority will run bulldozers over the area. TMA says the colony is encroachment, but C&W denies this claim.

On Thursday, TMA staff fired a warning shot by bulldozing the boundary wall of the colony. The infuriated residents of C&W colony, mostly government employees held a proteest at Deputy Commissioner’s Office against the action. However, so far, TMA, emboldened by the anti-encroachment operations going on across the country, remains adamant on reclaiming the C&W Colony land. According to town authority staff, TMA wants to construct shopping plazas in the area.

The said that TMA has offered the employees of C&W to retain their houses by paying rent and other dues to TMA otherwise they will be evicted by force.

Separately, enforcement squad removed encroachment from College Road Mandian with the help of heavy machinery. Abbottabad Cantonment Board officials with the backup of police and civil administration removed the illegal sheds, push carts, cabins and food kiosks from the area. Pushcart owners while talking to the media said that this campaign was meant only to snatch livelihood from small scale shopkeepers while the enforcers dare not touch large plazas. They demanded that cantonment board should also remove the encroachment from the nullahs and roadside shops of influential people.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2018.