No more leniency: 50-house slum flattened in anti-encroachment drive

CDA’s Enforcement Wing conducts operation in a small settlement in I-9/4.

ISLAMABAD:

Continuing its anti-encroachment drive, the Enforcement Wing of the Capital Development Authority removed a small illegal slum from Sector I-9/4 on Monday.

Unlike previous operations to address encroachments, CDA officials faced no resistance in removing around 50 huts set up along 9th Avenue.

As a precaution, the Enforcement team was provided with more security cover, as during a recent anti-encroachment operation in H-9, some five officials of the authority were injured during scuffles with illegal occupants.

The operation started on Monday morning and lasted for well over an hour. A 45-member anti-encroachment team was tasked with the job, CDA Spokesperson Malik Saleem Akhtar said.

The illegal settlement had sprung up some five months ago and was expanding with time. However, residents of the slum area protested against the CDA for not serving any eviction notices prior to the operation.

Mohammad Bashir, 54, said the marriages of his two daughters were planned on May 9. “We had decided to leave this place after the weddings, but the CDA disrupted our plans,” Bashir lamented.

Furious over the situation, Bashir lambasted major political parties for not providing shelter to homeless people. He said his family would now have to find another place to live in Islamabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2013.