Rawalpindi: TMA staff in anti-encroachment action at Raja Bazaar

[Naveed Yaseen]

Rizwan Ehsan Ali
The roadside vendors at Raja Bazaar are nowadays under the scanner of Tehsil Municipal Administration and the newly appointed traffic wardens.

The encroachment officers of TMA, accompanied by men in grey (traffic wardens), confiscated valuables like crockery, clothes and even four-wheeler fruit carts were not spared on Thursday during massive anti-encroachment drive.

“Anything that is displayed beyond three and a half feet outside any shop is encroachment,” said Inspector Malik Bashir, under whose command the anti-encroachment operation was conducted on Thursday.

They did not spare even the two-wheeler carts on which labours were off-loading goods outside the shops.

“We can’t lift this 15ft cart, but we will certainly confiscate all the items on this cart, as it blocks the smooth flow of the traffic on this busy road,” said TMA clerk Nazir Zada, who assisted Bashir in the operation.

Valuables worth thousands of rupees were taken into custody only on Thursday and it would only be returned to the owners once they pay a heavy fine of Rs1000 each.

The TMA officials informed that under the anti-encroachment drive, on average they charge at least 25-30 violators only in Raja Bazaar.

“That’s our normal routine and we confiscate goods from at least 25-30 people,” Malik Bashir said.

“For the last two weeks at least we are continuously monitoring the encroachers from 8 o’clock in the morning until seven in the afternoon,” he added.

The shopkeepers and commuters gather in large numbers once these officials raid at a certain spot in Raja Bazzar.

One Mohammad Siddique was not spared on Thursday. Despite pleading to the officials number of times, he did not succeed in convincing them. His melamine crockery worth Rs1000, which was displayed on a table, was dumped onto the TMA truck within minutes.

“Where should I go and earn my livelihood?” questioned Siddique. However, the officials paid little attention to Siddique’s request and moved ahead with all the valuables loaded on their truck.

The wardens kept on warning the labours of two-wheeler carts not to park on the road and offload the goods. “They simply do not listen to us, we have requested not only to these cart-drivers, but also the shopkeepers to bring in the goods from their godowns at night or early in the morning,” a warden told ‘The News’.

Another warden pointed out that the shopkeepers open their businesses not before 11 o’clock in the morning.

“The peak rush hours of traffic start on this road at 12 noon and that’s the time when these shopkeepers ask the cart-wheelers to bring in the goods,” the warden said.

The TMA officials believe that if the anti-encroachment drive continues, only then the roadside vendors would realise not to block the way of traffic on the road.

“That’s the only solution, if we stop monitoring them, they will be back on the road and block the movement of traffic,” Malik Bashir said.

The shopkeepers were not sure for how long this campaign would continue.

“Let’s see for how long the TMA would continue their latest drive against encroachments,” said Iqbal Bashir a shopkeeper.

“One week, two week or maximum a month and after this, it will be the same traffic mess on this road due to these encroachers,” he predicted.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=123434