LAHORE, July 24: Parliamentarians elected from the city in the October elections have threatened to launch a protest movement against the district government if it continues to ignore problems of Lahorites.

MNA Farid Piracha, MPAs Ehsanullah Waqas, Chaudhry Shaukat, Rana Mashhood and Maher Ishtiaq said at a press conference here on Thursday the district government had failed in maintaining law and order and providing civic amenities to the city of seven million souls.

They said dacoity and murder incidents were order of the day and it seemed that there was no police and government in the city.

The government was also undertaking flawed town planning as bus stands were being shifted to the Bund Road and Chowk Yateem Khana, one of the most congested areas in the city, instead of city’s outskirts, they regretted.

It would multiply people’s transport problems due to increased traffic to these congested areas, they feared.

They also criticized introduction of sanitation fee by the district government, terming it a strain on the people overburdened by inflated power and gas bills.

Besides, the authorities had lost their right to collect the fee as heaps of garbage could be seen lying in every nook and corner of the city as well as supply of contaminated water to consumers, they said.

They claimed that the authorities also failed in providing a reliable drainage system to the people as a survey found that rain water was accumulated at 172 points in the city on Thursday.

They lamented the working of LDA saying road networks in all its schemes were in rundown condition. A fraud was being committed at official level as the LDA had collected millions of rupees in the name of Avenue-I scheme but not a single inch land had so far been acquired for the purpose, they alleged.

They said state-run schools were being merged with each other without any planning while no new school had been opened by the district government.

The city also lacked space for graveyard while the city authorities were providing a recreation to the people which had been termed indecent even by artistes, they claimed.