Second phase of drive to start from tomorrow

Rawalpindi : In second phase of its anti-encroachment drive, the city district government, Rawalpindi is going to start an operation against illegal speed breakers, barriers and encroached areas like porch, shades in residential localities of Rawal Town and Potohar Town from tomorrow (December 10).

The Chief Officer (CO) District Council, Rawalpindi Kamran Khan told ‘The News’ that on the directions of Deputy Commissioner (DC), they were going to start an anti-encroachment drive in residential localities to remove illegal speed breakers, barriers and other encroached areas of porch of houses and increased shades. “We will take action in residential localities from December 10, 2018,” he added.

He said that there are several illegal speed breakers and barriers in majority of streets and muhallas in Rawal Town and Potohar Town. He said no action will be taken against those who have proper approval of increased shades of houses but we will never spare anybody who have encroached upon streets.

The concerned authorities have issued notices to residents to voluntarily remove encroachments.

The drive, which is part of the province-wide anti-encroachment operations directed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Punjab government has also directed the Rawalpindi assistant commissioner to identify and list all the encroached land in the city.

It is worth mentioning here that illegal occupants have occupied government land of over Rs5 billion in Rawalpindi city/cantonment board and Potohar Town localities. Majority of offices of Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) and all public dispensaries in city owned by Municipal Corporation Rawalpindi (MCR) have been occupied by government departments for years in this regard.

In the first phase of the drive, civic bodies have retrieved state land worth of Rs1 billion. Operation against illegal occupants of the land of Damdama Temple has been stopped.