Gujjar Nullah operation is difficult, says DMC Central administrator

The Anti-encroachment operation on the Gujjar Nullah continued on Wednesday, and a survey of houses was being conducted.

Newly-appointed DMC Central administrator Mohammed Bux Dharejo while talking to The News on Wednesday said not even a single house had been demolished as of now. The District Central administration had only removed soft encroachments over the Gujjar Nullah.

Dharejo said the operation was difficult as only 2,000 houses had been marked in the survey. KMC Director Anti-Encroachment Bashir Siddiqi said the operation was being carried out on the orders of the Supreme Court. The survey and anti-encroachment operation on the drain has also sparked protests. In a recent protest, residents of the Rehmanabad area of the Federal B Area voiced their reservations against the anti-encroachment operation.

Scores of Rehmanabad residents gathered at Gulberg’s Tahir Villa Chowrangi for their protest, which caused a massive gridlock as they blocked the flow of traffic for hours by placing tyres on the road.

The protesters said they had been living in the surroundings of the Gujjar Nullah for years, but no government official had ever stopped them from constructing their homes. They accused government officials of taking bribes from them when they had been building their houses, saying that now the same government officials were claiming that the residents were living illegally.