KARACHI, March 7: The city’s busiest Saddar Town area appeared light and pleasant on Friday as motorists, public transporters, pedestrians and shoppers of all ages straddled with ease following removal of encroachments.
The town administration, with the backing of the city government, earlier removed all unauthorized temporary goods stalls, squat vendors, pushcart-sellers, locksmiths, shoe-shiners and beggars from the roads and footpaths.
The roads appeared wide and open contrary to usual congestion. A rickshaw driver said, “How easy it becomes to drive in Saddar on days when encroachments disappear.” He, however, could not suppress his comment about how usually encroachments reappeared and then infested the area. “Police certainly help encroachers for their own benefit,” he said woefully.
Shahrah-i-Iraq, Daudpota Road, Mir Karam Ali Talpur Road, Preedy Street, Mansfield Street and Zaibunnisa Street all reminded one of the old days of Karachi when motorists, pedestrians, even tram-cars and Victorias plied through the hub of the city’s business without much difficulty.
For the time being, both traffic and security police demonstrated their presence at the points likely to be reoccupied by encroachers and were keeping them away. However, encroachers, who took shelter in side- lanes and alleys, waited for the moment when they could notch a comeback.
Fruit sellers mostly huddled into alleys along the Mir Karam Ali Talpur Road, old clothes vendors moved into the Mansfield Street, while electrical and showpiece goods sellers went to the lanes along the Daudpota Road.
A few electrical goods sellers were seen waiting in a restaurant with goods tied in cloth sheets in anticipation of finding a spot to jettison themselves and their stocks. At some places, encroachers seemed to be taking advantage of a lenient view of the law enforcers. If they used to encroach on one side of the road earlier, some ingenuously took to the other side to avoid being noticed.
For once, the blare of vehicle horns also appeared to have reduced as the traffic flowed freely. One spot, which however appeared in less control of the law enforcers, was the Korangi bus stop. The bus drivers, conductors and their agents were unruffled as before.
There was less litter on roads thanks to absence of vendors who dump waste papers, used card boxes, fruit peels wherever possible on the roads. General sweeping and cleaning of roads, however, needed more attention.
One thing quite missing was a mechanism to maintain the encroachment -free state of the area. One wished a similar decongestion in all other areas of the Town.—APP
