Heads of different provincial departments operating in the Rawalpindi district had stopped holding ‘Khuli Katcheries’, which were considered an effective platform for prompt redress of public grievances, setting aside clear directives of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
The Punjab chief minister had directed all heads of the provincial departments for addressing grievances of the common man through open courts thrice a week on a regular basis from 8 am to 11 am.
Chiefs of various departments including Commissioner, District Coordination Officer, Executive District Officers, Education Board, Allied Hospitals, Police, Food, Livestock, Rawalpindi Development Authority, Park and Horticulture, Housing and Physical Planning, Excise and Taxation, Water and Sanitation Agency, Town Municipal Administration and Regional Transport Authority had not arranged these public forums for the last two and a half months.
Expressing anger over the blithe attitude of concerned officers, in resolving their genuine problems, people demanded stern action against officers showing negligence to comply with orders of the chief minister.
People had started sending their complaints to the Chief Minister’s Lahore Secretariat as no open courts were being held to resolve their problems.
Azeem Butt, a resident of Karimpura, said that people in the area had been facing the problem of contaminated water for several months and Water and Sanitation Agency was not ready to repair the broken pipelines of water supply.
He said that complaints had been registered with WASA time and again but the concerned staff had turned a deaf ear to the issue, putting the health of residents at risk
Javed Hussain Naqvi, another complainant, said that a number of health-hazardous activities were continuing in various residential colonies of the city, violating clear directives of the district government.
He said that around 130 illegal factories were functioning in various residential areas of the city, out of which 40 were located in Khyaban-e-Sir Syed, Bagh Sardaran and Khyaban-e-Iqbal areas.
In a joint application to the Punjab chief minister, he informed APP that residents of Khyaban-e-Iqbal (old Badar and Bangash colonies) had complained that illegal commercial activities in the area had made their lives miserable because of noxious fumes given off during recycling and leather refining coupled with noise pollution.
Javed alleged that residential areas were being used for commercial activities in connivance with the Tehsil Municipal Administration staff as no one would dare start a business without the authority’s support.
Hundreds of such applications were being forwarded to provincial departments every month for disposal of complaints, which otherwise would have been dealt with at the local level.
The City Police Officer (CPO) was also avoiding holding a ‘Yaumia Khuli Katchery’, while junior officers were sent in the open courts being held on weekly basis for the last several weeks.
