RCB staff removes encroachments from markets

Rawalpindi
The enforcement staff of Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) carried out a grand operation against encroachers on Saturday and Sunday in different markets in its jurisdiction.
The anti-encroachment drive was launched on the orders of the acting executive officer of RCB, Mohammad Rameez, who assumed charge last week after his predecessor, Fahim Zafar Khan, was relieved from his post as he was selected for a course.
The enforcement staff on the orders of the acting RCB CEO and headed by in-charge Hamid carried out an operation clean-up in Westridge, Saddar, Tench Bhata and Range Road.
Assisted by police, the enforcement staff removed all kinds of temporary encroachments from Saddar, Range Road, Tench Bhata and Westridge markets. While carrying out the drive, the enforcement staff confiscated goods in seven trucks besides seizing more than 35 pushcarts. The encroachers in Tench Bhata tried to resist the move, however, police thwarted their efforts.
According to enforcement section in-charge Hamid and official spokesman Raja Rizwan, the confiscated items, including goods and pushcarts, would be returned only when encroachers pay fines in the judicial magistrate court functioning in the RCB office. The encroachers whose pushcarts were confiscated did not possess any licence which is mandatory to establish business in markets and bazaars, said Hamid.
In the meantime, the citizens of Tench Bhatta and Saddar parts while appreciating the move of RCB stressed upon the higher authorities of the civic body for evolving effective and practical steps for removing permanent encroachments as well which are illegally and forcibly formed by the traders and shopkeepers in every bazaar of the cantonment.
A resident of Tench Bhata, Imtiaz Hussain, pointed towards the presence of goods displayed outside shops and on footpaths. According to him, the limited area for displaying items by shopkeepers is their shops while footpaths and cemented construction is meant for pedestrians for walking.
Another resident of the same locality, Arshad Mahmood, expressed his anguish over the inability of the enforcement staff for taking action against traders and shopkeepers on the charge of placing goods on footpaths and cemented parts which otherwise is illegal. He regretted the inability of enforcement staff towards this issue and said that action is taken against only poor vendors and pushcart owners as well as stallers who establish their business to earn their livelihood.
Other citizens, while endorsing their views, appealed to the station commander and the CEO to adopt measures for removal of encroachments set up by traders and shopkeepers outside their shops and business centres.