Furniture market traders protest against mayor

LAHORE

Dozens of shopkeepers at furniture market, Laxmi Chowk, staged a protest demonstration against Lord Mayor, Lahore for not visiting the area, which faced an over six hours of fire here Monday.

Shopkeepers said a furniture shop caught fire at around 2pm which spread in the nearby buildings. They said firefighting operation was completed at around 8pm.

They said no public representative, including mayor of Lahore visited the scene to supervise the rescue operation as well as to offer solidarity with the traders.

The spokesman for CDGL said that newly-elected mayor of Lahore ‘supervised’ rescue and fire fighting operation of Monday’s Laxmi Chowk furniture market fire from his office. “If mayor has no interest in visiting the citizens in problem then why he was made mayor,” said Naeemullah, one of the affected shopkeepers. “We were just five to 10 minutes drive from his office and he didn’t bother to come to us,” he said, adding the attitude of mayor towards the citizens was not people-friendly. It is pertinent to mention here that Lahore in past had witnessed several major fire incidents, which raised several questions regarding the present firefighting capabilities of City District Government Lahore (CDGL).

Upgrading the CDGL’s firefighting unit is one of the major tasks, which the mayor of Lahore will have to deal during his tenure and this is why he should have himself visited all major fire incidents in the city to see the shortcomings in the city’s firefighting system and capabilities.

Colonel (R) Mubashar,  Lahore mayor while talking with the scribe over the issue said it was his responsibility to visit any such incident in the city but as the transition phase was going on, so he was busy in some important meetings.

However, he remained in touch with the firefighters and was getting minute to minute update of rescue operation, he said.