Forgotten: Road rollers rusting away in parking lot

Local govt officials have allegedly stripped the vehicles.

RAWALPINDI:

Owing to the negligence of the provincial government, seven heavy road rollers worth millions of rupees are rusting away in the open for the past two decades. 

In 1993, the Punjab government parked the road rollers in the parking lot of the Punjab Local Government Department Rawalpindi. Since then no efforts have been made to use or auction the machinery which is gathering rust in the parking lot of the department.

Sources in the local government department, requesting not be named, alleged that the delay benefited some government officers, who stripped the vehicles.  A senior officer of the department told The Express Tribune that due to deteriorating law and order, these vehicles were deemed a security risk.

Before being grounded, the road rollers were used to level roads across the district by the local government. However, in 1993, amid reports regarding the abolishment of the local government department, the machinery was parked. Even though the plan was later shelved, the vehicles were never used.



Sheikh Shabbir, superintendent in the Local Government Department, said they had written to the director general of Local Government Punjab. He confirmed that the imported vehicles were fast depreciating.

A senior officer in the Local Government department, requesting not to be named, said that correspondence was under way between the local government Rawalpindi and Lahore for the last 10 years. “Mostly our written requests end up in the waste bin.”

The offices of the local government department, Rescue 1122 and Civil Defence are located in the same premises.  Officials often have to contend with a shortage of parking place, as a major area is occupied by the road rollers.

Employees demanded the government take notice of the vehicles.  “The imported machinery should either be repaired or auctioned immediately to avoid further damage,” said an official.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2014.