On the second day of the anti-encroachment drive, the Enforcement Directorate and Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) of the civic management demolished 7 illegally constructed kiosks which have been running for years.
It is pertinent to mention here, at present, there are still 621 kiosks which have been running in the capital for years. The Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) failed to restore 485 kiosks despite parliament’s direction.
Suddenly, just after the harsh reaction from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the city fathers opened their eyes over irregularities and vowed to resolve the civic issues faced by the laymen.
Islamabad dwellers are suffering from the hefty-encroachments in all marakiz, food markets and vegetable market, and even in the posh areas of the city.
The big bosses of Capital Development Authority (CDA), after disappointing the PM, have started an anti-encroachment drive. In two days, the management has successfully demolished 23 illegal kiosks, a newly constructed room in sector G-10/3 in an instant drive in sector G-11/1, G-11/2 and G-11/3.
In anti-encroachment drive, the enforcement also demolished 9 vendors’ stalls which were selling construction materials.
The anti-encroachment team, however, faced resistance from the people of Dhok Elahi Buksh when they moved to demolish illegally constructed structures.
After the decision of Islamabad High Court (IHC) and board’s decision in 2012 to demolish every kiosk, the CDA conducted an operation on cover counters and kiosks, in which many illegal constructions were razed, however, later on, the parliament issued order to restore the kiosks within 3 days.
By then, two times summary is still pending with the mayor, which has been forwarded to restore the licensed 485 kiosks, re-design the structure to 10×12, and seek the approval for increase in monthly rent from Rs700 to 5000.
In past’s various incidents, the owners of illegal kiosks used to get a photocopy of genuine license and edit it to make forged license.
Sources said that CDA’s Assistant Revenue Naveed Abbasi, PTI labour councilor, Syed Sajjad, then DD DMA, and Rafaqat Kiyani of DMA were allegedly involved in this ill-gotten money and licensing.
In this regard, the Mayor Anser Aziz also chaired a high level meeting at CDA Headquarters on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by the top brass of CDA.
The meeting reviewed the ongoing development works in the city; performance of different formations of the CDA and the MCI was discussed at length.
Initiatives by different the directorates along with their implementation strategies and execution plans were under discussion.
In the meeting, sanitation conditions of the city, roads maintenance, up-gradation of parks and play grounds, street lights and provision of other municipal facilities in Islamabad were discussed. Aziz directed the Environment Wing to accelerate its activities to preserve green culture and cleanliness in the city.
The Mayor of Islamabad and Chairman CDA, Sheikh Anser Aziz directed Municipal Administration and Enforcement Directorates to gear up the anti-encroachment drive.
The anti-encroachment drive will commence in three days as per advertisement floated in the newspapers.
The mayor directed all formations of CDA and MCI to extend all their resources, including human resource and machinery to the municipal administration and enforcement directorates for the success of the upcoming anti-encroachment drive.
In another meeting on Tuesday, Aziz added four latest compactors to the transport fleet of the Sanitation Directorate to improve cleanliness in the city. These compactors would be utilised in the sectors, where cleanliness services are being carried out by the staff of the directorate.
It was decided by the authority to induct the latest machinery and latest model vehicles to cope with the cleanliness requirements of the city.
