70 shops at Township Jinnah Market burnt

LAHORE:At least 70 shops were gutted when a fire erupted at Jinnah Market, Township, due to the negligence of Lesco and delay of Rescue 1122 fire service. The fire was controlled after hectic efforts continued for over three hours. The shopkeepers told The News that high voltage wires passing over the market were sparking for many days. They informed Lesco complaint office. The complaint cell also confirmed the receipt of the complaint but nobody turned up to rectify the problem. In the wee hours of Wednesday when all shops were closed, the wire fell on the shops with sparks. As a result, a fire erupted initially in two shops at 2:30am. The people on the spot informed Rescue 1122 which reached the scene after 45 minutes, said Sarfraz Khan, a social activist. Due to the delay in firefighting, fire engulfed the entire market reducing valuables, including clothes, furniture and shoes to ashes.

The fire was controlled at around 6am. Poor shopkeepers gathered on main road and lodged protest against Lesco. They said the lethargic response of Lesco officials deprived the poor shopkeepers of their sole source of livelihood. They demanded the chief minister to take action against the officials responsible for huge loss and compensate the victims from the national exchequer.

Trader Sarfraz Khan, who is also former general councillor, expressed deep sense of sorrow and anger over the huge loss of millions of rupees. He added dozens of families had been deprived of their source of income. He demanded timely compensation for the poor shopkeepers. He said a shopkeeper had opened the new shop of shoes on Tuesday which was also gutted. Cash of over Rs 1 million was also reduced to ashes. The representatives of government and opposition visited the scene just for “photo shoot,” he alleged.

Rescue 1122 spokesman Farooq on the issue claimed their fire tenders had responded to the incident within 7 minutes. The fire was already flared up which caused huge loss.

Additional IG: Additional IGP PHP Captain (r) Zafar Iqbal Awan paid a visit to Directorate of Monitoring Punjab (DOM) and issued directions to the officers concerned regarding improvement in working relations.

The additional IG PHP visited the Directorate of Monitoring (DOM) Punjab in Arfa Kareem Tower where DOM DG Colonel (r) Aman Ullah Khan briefed him about the working of different departments of DOM.

The DOM DG explained the working of PHP vehicle tracking and helpline 1124 and also briefed about the challenges being faced.

The additional IGP PHP directed the authorities concerned to improve DOM/PHP working relationship and said that traffic violators on the roads should be issued e-challans. He said a summary was in process for provision of fine collection vehicles in this regard. He added that for improving paperless working in PHP, latest mobile phones along with fast internet would be provided to each PHP post with high speed internet connections.

While emphasising on the importance of campaigns in view of fog, he ordered all the regional commanders to increase strength of patrolling teams and use all available sources for effective communication to keep the passengers aware of precautionary measures in foggy weather. He vowed to improve the monitoring of all departments.