Residents of the Old City areas have described
encroachment as one of the major problems in Saddar and
Lyari towns.
According to them, the thriving business,
involving millions of rupees, is generally managed by
a strong mafia which has 'high connections'.
They argue that the menace cannot be combated
at municipal level until the higher authorities come up
with some serious measures. It needs a coordinated strategy
with provincial, city and town administrations mobilizing
all their resources and administrative machinery to deal
with the mafia.
Though the recent anti-encroachment drive
in Saddar Town has achieved some positive results, with
road-side illegal structures demolished and vendors occupying
state and municipal lands across Saddar, M. A. Jinnah
Road, Boulton Market, Burns Road, Machhi Miani Market,
Kharadar and Mithadar removed, but the town administration
has been facing a lot of problems in consolidating the
gains as the drive could not receive an appropriate response
from other government agencies.
A survey of shopping places of the town
shows that encroachers in some of the areas are making
desperate and constant efforts to return to the spots
from where they were removed to resume their business.
In Lyari Town, the situation is alarming.
Encroachers in certain localities, mainly major thoroughfares,
have been given a free hand to grab the land of their
choice. No serious operation has been launched against
them as yet.
Affected residents of the areas maintain
that despite their continuous hue and cry, no action has
been taken against the encroachers who are continuing
their business, without any fear of legal action, in Lea
Market, Haat Chowk, Sheedi Village Road, Karabhai Karimji
Road, etc.
Expressing their concern over the increasing
encroachments, particularly around school buildings, hospitals
and other public places in the town, the people demand
that concerned authorities take a serious note of the
situation and take early remedial steps in this regard.
A survey of the affected localities in
Lyari Town shows that encroachers, running automobile
business and repair workshops have been occupying footpaths
and roads around schools and hospitals by parking the
vehicles dropped there by their owners for sale or repair.
Schoolchildren passing through the area
and patients intending to visit the hospitals or move
to some other place have been facing a lot of problems
due to the parked vehicles which have blocked or narrowed
down the passage.
Such illegal parking and resultant traffic
mess around government schools along the main Chawkiwara
Road, Juna Kumharwara Road, Shah Latif Bhitai Road, Lyari
Degree College and Lyari Technical College have now become
a common sight.
Upcountry transporters have converted
these public places into their 'parking lots' scores of
their vehicles happen to be parked there at a time either
with the connivance of police or concerned officials of
different departments, obviously through the powerful
mafia.
A visit to Chawkiwara Road, Juna Kumharwara
Road, Faqir Mohammad Dura Khan Road, Fida Hussain Shaikha
Road and Haji Pir Mohammad Road shows that the encroachers
are running their business well-established on the government
lands at public places.
"The encroachers are not only causing
inconvenience and hardship to passers-by, but also serious
problems to commuters and fatigue to local residents,
one of the residents, Imran Raj, pointed out.
"It is ironic to note that the anti-encroachment
departments of the city government and town administration
have turned a blind eye towards this pressing problem
despite our complaints lodged many a times," said
another one.
The area people identify 'controllers'
of the open space around public properties in the area
as 'transport mafia' and 'bhatta mafia' which, they say,
extort vendors and hawkers to allow them to continue their
business. They say that the transport mafia, who reigns
supreme in the locality, maintains its control of all
the market places, busy roads, streets and densely populated
areas of the town.
