Crackdown on encroachments today

Official says survey to identify encroached areas completed

RAWALPINDI:

The Municipal Corporation Rawalpindi (MCR) is all 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 Friday (today).

"We will make the city free of encroachments, for which a detailed survey has already been completed," MCR Chief Municipal Officer Ali Abass Bokhari vowed. He said a full-fledged survey to identify the encroached areas and obstacles had been completed for the swift operation and ensuring a smooth flow of traffic in the garrison city.

Ali said the MCR was making arrangements to shift the illegal stall vendors to alternate places, selected in ten areas so that this poor segment of the society could earn a respectable livelihood for their families. He said the corporation could allow no one to encroach the state land, but it would ensure that poor vendors were not deprived of their livelihood by allocating them specified areas for doing business.

Read Encroachments a nuisance for residents

To make the operation successful, the CEO said the city had been divided into six sectors where each sector incharge would be responsible if there was any encroachment.

In the first phase, Murree Road would be made a model artery by purging it of all kinds of encroachments, he said, adding that all stakeholders, including local parliamentarians and traders, were being taken on board to make the drive result-oriented. No political pressure will be borne, he said.

The CEO warned the encroachers to voluntarily remove their illegal stalls and clear the state land immediately, otherwise not only their goods would be confiscated but also FIRs would be registered against them.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2021.