CDGL silent on encroachments by bigwigs

LAHORE
WHEN it comes to encroachments, the City District Government Lahore seems very strict and active against powerless vendors but when it comes to encroachments by bigwigs, the CDGL prefers to stay indifferent and silent.
The best example of the fact is placement of a full 80 feet container on the parking area outside one of its retail outlets in Johar Town (G-1 market) by a local bakery chain. The nicely decorated container was turned into a kitchen-cum-takeaway shop and the bakery is selling various freshly made products on the spot.
Following the placement of this container, the area is facing traffic jams because people coming to this busy market didn’t find a place to park their vehicles. Besides this, customers parked their vehicles on the road to buy meals from this container hindering the traffic flow.
Permanent presence of hundreds of thousands of temporary encroachments on city roads especially outside commercial centres and other important places is not a very new phenomenon in the city and despite repeated operation cleanups these encroachments continue to pop up exposing the role of CDGL and town administrations which are making tall claims about removal of encroachments from the provincial capital.
Local citizens said that placing the container outside shops in this busy commercial centre of the city was very astonishing.
They said if every shop starts following this trend, where the people will park their vehicles. They said CDGL and nine TMAs were responsible for removing temporary encroachments from their respective areas but none of them had succeeded in making their areas according to their tall claims of encroachment-free zones.
Encroachments outside commercial centres and on walkways and footpaths are most troubled one for the citizens as these encroachments clearly deny the right of movement to the pedestrian besides causing traffic congestion as visitors are forced to park their vehicles on the roads.
There are dozens of shwarma sellers operating on the road in the same G-1 market of Johar Town near a hospital and all of them claimed that they were paying Rs15,000 to Rs18,000 to the shop owners outside which they were sitting. Those who are not operating from outside any shop, they are allegedly paying ‘monthly rent’ to some hidden forces within the CDGL and town administration.
The locals said that the CDGL should take strict action against these encroachments and they should be removed. They said the CDGL should make a day-to-day monitoring system and SOPs should be devised for this purpose.
A dedicated complaint cell should also be established where residents could lodge their complaints against encroachments with a trust that action will be taken. On the other hand, the scribe tried to contact TMO Allama Iqbal Town but he didn’t bother to attend his official cell phone. Text messages were also sent to him but he didn’t reply. Similarly the scribe also tried to contact Administrator Allama Iqbal Town but he neither attended his cell phone nor called back.