Anti-encroachment: Drive ineffective as KMC avoids ‘lucrative’ sites

KMC's anti-encroachment director says some officials responsible for failure.

KARACHI: Over the last few weeks, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has claimed to have been conducting a rigorous campaign against encroachments in the city. Ironically, the corporation has left the most important sites untouched.

Some of the more 'lucrative' areas that the KMC has 'unwittingly' avoided are the Sindhi Muslim roundabout, Tariq Road, Khalid bin Waleed Road, Rashid Minhas Road, Jamshed Road, Liaquatabad, Hussainabad and Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

Only last month, KMC's anti-encroachment department employees paid a 'surprise' visit to Khalid-bin-Waleed Road. A car showroom owner at the busy thoroughfare told The Express Tribune that they had already been informed about the visit before the staff arrived at the site. They had thus been able to remove their vehicles from the area before the raid. "When the KMC staff left, we parked the vehicles at the same places again," he laughed.

The road, according to the showroom owner, is one of several lucrative sites in terms of bribes for the KMC staff. "The KMC employees are able to coerce millions of rupees from the pushcart vendors and shopkeepers at these areas," he explained. "Why would they want to close the doors to this lucrative source of income?" he questioned.

For his part, the KMC's anti-encroachment cell director, Bilal Manzar, said that some officials were responsible for the campaign's failure. Manzar admitted that the drive had not borne results at Tariq Road and its adjoining areas. He was quick to say, however, that his department was now working on a new strategy and would be conducting random inspections in these areas. "We are scheduled to meet the Traffic Police DIG in this regard. After consulting him, we will start a thorough campaign in these areas again," he revealed.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2014.