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| January 22, 2003 | Wednesday | Ziqa’ad 18, 1423 |
Encroachers disrupting traffic flow in Peshawar
PESHAWAR, Jan 21: Free movement of pedestrians and vehicles has become a difficult task in cantonment and city areas, as vendors, hand-cart pushers and double car-parking leave very little space for the pedestrians and moving traffic.
From the main Saddar Road to GPO, vendors, selling variety of items, have encroached upon pavements on both sides of the roads, posing difficulties in the way, especially for women, school- going children and aged people.
In Khyber Bazaar, Qissakhawani Bazaar, Chowk Yadgaar, Namak Mandi, Shoba bazaar, Shabistan Cinema Chowk and other busy streets and lanes, where the traffic problem has become extremely acute.
The government launched the drive against illegal structures in cantonment and city areas with a view to widen the roads and provide relief to the people. The drive has been nearing completion and the roads have also become wide, but the people are yet to feel the difference.
The shopkeepers in the narrow lanes inside Saddar area, permanently park their vehicles, in the middle of the road, causing problems to the people going on foot as well as driving cars in these lanes.
“We have been repeatedly demanding of the cantonment board officials to ban entry of vehicles to Liaquat Bazaar, Fowara Chowk and Tipu Sultan Road to provide much-needed space to the visitors, but still all these illegal practices go unabated, owing to the lacklustre attitude of the authorities concerned,” said a shopkeeper.
The presence of Afghan refugees in NWFP has led to increase in number of vendors and small-time shopkeepers, who can start their business with very little investment. The officials concerned who thrive on the tax-payer’s money, are supposed to take cognizance of the situation, but they take bribes from these vendors, help the menace flourish, and, thus, the sufferings and difficulties of the people are increasing with every assing day.
A few policemen take round thrice a day to collect bribes from the small-time shopkeepers, according to the size and quantum of their businesses. Mobile vendors-selling socks, woollies, towels, fruits, crockery, electronic appliances, cigarettes, chocolates and other items of daily use add to the mess.
“I earn only 50 per cent for myself, half of my profit goes into the pockets of the officials who have facilitated my business,” said an Afghan vendor, Gul Wali. According to him, the officials cannot take action against the vendors, because they are paying them handsome amount per day.
Juice shop owners have placed chairs and tables on the road or footpaths and one has to push many people to go ahead walking on these footpaths, which often develop row between the shopkeepers and the vendors.
Double car-parking has also aggravated the problem. The traffic police deployed to regulate traffic seem committed to do nothing to the end the difficulties of the people. The people riding latest model cars do not care about rules and regulations, and the main duty of the traffic cops, it seems, is to haunt taxi drivers and passengers vehicles to extract bribes from them.
“Majority of the new cars, we know, are owned by influential people, therefore, we cannot stop them for checking their documents for fear of being reprimanded by our seniors,” said a traffic official.
He said this had happened several times that he or his other colleagues dared to stop and check the documents of the
limousines-owners, which ultimately landed them in hot waters.
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