Anti-encroachment drive: Things get ugly between city government, traders

Traders beat LDA staff halfway through an anti-encroachment operation.

LAHORE: Traders beat up the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) staff, halfway through an anti-encroachment operation, forcing them to flee.

The incident occurred at Madina Market in Township on Friday.

LDA Enforcement Squad, on an operation against encroachments, faced strong resistance from traders and vendors who had encroached on public land. The brawl started when the squad started loading vendors’ property in trucks.

The traders and vendors started off with angry shouts and slogans against the LDA staff. They then told the staff to stop the operation and “negotiate” with them. According to the LDA, when the staff ignored their shouts and pleas, some traders started throwing stones at the staff. This led to an exchange of harsh words, followed by a scuffle between some of the traders and the LDA staff.

The authority staff was outnumbered by the protesting traders who forcibly unloaded one truck. The LDA staff then ran away, leaving behind one of its trucks.

This did nothing to assuage the traders’ anger and they continued to protest. After the LDA staff had fled, they blocked the road by burning tyres and pelted passing vehicles with stones, damaging many of them. Township police was broke up the protest in the end.

Muhammad Ishfaq, the market president, maintained that the clash had started when the LDA staff entered their premises “by force”. “The staff especially targeted my restaurant because I am the one who encourages traders not to give “mahanaas” (monthly bribes) to the LDA,” Ishfaq told The Express Tribune. Ishfaq also blamed the LDA for starting the brawl.

“They kept abusing us. It got to a point where it became unbearable,” the president stated. He claimed that the LDA staff collected thousands of rupees illegally from the traders every month rather than cite them for a commercial challan (violation) once a year. ‘Commercial challan’ is an annual fee which the LDA collects from some categories of shops and business outlets to allow them to display the merchandise in front of their shops or outlets.

Enforcement Squad deputy director, Rameen Chaudhry, who was heading the operation, said that the squad had just been following instructions. Rejecting the trader’s accusations that the LDA staff took mahanaas, he said, “The Enforcement Squad is not assigned fixed areas. How can we charge a monthly tax?” He added that he was unaware of any person involved in extortion.

The deputy director also denied using abusive language during the operation. “We were in the middle of our operation. If we were aggressive from the start, as the traders allege, why wasn’t a scene created sooner?” he asked. Chaudhry said, “In fact, they were the ones who beat up our staff and damaged our machinery. Some of them tried even to kidnap two of our inspectors.”

The LDA has submitted an application at the Township police station requesting that the police initiate an investigation against the traders involved.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2011.