Dozens of illegal structures dismantled on Ring Road

PESHAWAR: The district administration Tuesday dismantled dozens of illegal structures on Ring Road to pave the way for the construction of service roads on both sides of the road.
The district administration had launched a massive crackdown against encroachments on both sides of the Ring Road.The crackdown was started after a recent meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to build service roads on both sides of the Ring Road in Peshawar.
The decision was widely welcomed but recovering the public property from land grabbers was a major issue confronted by the provincial government as some of the encroachers were stated to be influential.
The district administration has retrieved major portion of the precious property from land grabbers and handed it over to the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA).Deputy Commissioner Peshawar Riaz Khan Mahsud on Tuesday arranged a visit to the site for print and electronic media, where they were shown the land recovered from encroachers. Assistant Commissioners Altaf Ahmad Sheikh and Mohammad Shoaib Khan showed the media persons the teams of the district administration equipped with heavy machinery dismantling heavy structures built illegally on state property.
During a press briefing, Riaz Khan Mahsud said they had so far cleared 16 kilometres area on both sides of the Ring Road and vowed to continue the drive till all illegal structures were removed. He said they had removed illegal structures of 22 filling stations, and dismantled 300 shops and godowns, 350 boundary walls and 300 kiosks.
The deputy commissioner said the drive against encroachments was not directed against any particular person or group.
“All the citizens are equally respectable to us. But there will be no discrimination when it comes to official matters,” the deputy commissioner said.He said Chief Minister Perez Khattak had given them full support and directed them to continue the anti-encroachment drive. The district administration had made security arrangements and deployed a large number of police and paramilitary Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel for protection of its teams.Riaz Mahsud said the campaign against encroachments has been started from Hayatabad Toll Plaza. He said it would continue until all the state property was retrieved.