Residents of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) colonies are powerless over the depleting conditions of the colonies, which are being completely ignored by the PTCL authorities despite the residents’ complaints. The residents, who also are the employees of PTCL, claim that the colonies could be considered the perfect example of downfall of PTCL as no heed was being paid and no effort was being made to maintain them, especially the colony situated right behind the Garden Town Exchange. PTCL has four colonies located in the Cantonment area, Faisal Town, Multan Road, Model Town and one is situated in the Garden Town. Surprisingly all the colonies suffer from same problems but on different scales. The residents, being the employees of the PTCL, abstain from discussing the exhausted conditions of the residential colonies.
SPILLING GUTTERS, DENGUE AND
SECURITY: “Only those colonies are maintained where higher officials live but where we, the low grade officers live, attention is hardly ever paid, so much so that we have got used to the over-spilling gutters, the stink and zero supply of water,” an employee and a resident asking not be named said. Amongst the many problems being faced by the residents of PTCL colony, especially the Garden Town Colony, are spilling gutters, nil water supply and lack of security arrangements. The residents claim that a spilling gutter welcomed the residents into the colony for over 6 months even after regular complaints were filed with the PTCL authorities.
“We had to save our shalwars from sewage water every time we entered our own house,” a woman said, adding that the gutter started over-spilling during June and even though requests for repairs were filed, no action was taken. “We repaired it and fixed other problems of the colony on our own,” she said, adding that many, including senior citizens and children, had suffered from dengue while one resident had also passed away because of it. The colony is a small residential area with 24 houses. The residents here claim that they bring water from Kalma Chowk Askari when the supply of water is slashed. “We are neither provided water for drinking or for our daily use so we bring it in containers from Askari,” another resident said.
“We’ve fixed the streetlights on our own but we aren’t happy with the security arrangements. They have only deployed a single unarmed guard,” another resident said. ‘WHO ARE THEY?’: The caretaker of the colony, Human Resource Senior Manager Akram Zubair, dubbed all allegations baseless, adding “The Multan Road Colony is occupied by illegal occupants.”
“We address all the complaints received by the residents,” he said, adding “Perfection can’t be attainted, if we pay too much attention to our residential colonies like the Railways did, we’d end up like them.”
A place where all complaint calls are ignored
