RAWALPINDI, Feb 7: The offices of the Tehsil Municipal Administration will be shifted to the newly-built Municipal Complex near Liaquat Bagh on February 13, the TMA spokesman, Qazi Attaur Rehman, told Dawn.

Tehsil Nazim Hamid Nawaz Raja has directed the TMA staff to complete the shifting process within the deadline. The work has been started and arrangements are in the final stages, the spokesman said. The new offices will be inaugurated by Punjab Minister for Local Government and Law Mohammad Basharat Raja.

The Tehsil Nazim on Saturday visited the complex to inspect the pace of work and directed the officers and workers to complete the process within the fixed date.

It is to be recalled that the municipal complex has been lying unutilized for the last several years due to the alleged irregularities committed by the contractor in connivance with some officers of the now defunct Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is investigating the case.

While investigations are underway, the NAB has allowed the TMA to shift its offices to the new complex, the spokesman said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the acting Tehsil Nazim, Sajjad Khan, had directed the shifting of the offices to the complex about a month back when the Nazim was on a foreign visit. But later on the plan was cancelled.

Meanwhile, the Tehsil Nazim has assured the traders community that no extra tax would be levied on them.

Steps are underway to provide more and more facilities to the traders, he said while talking to different delegations of traders who met him in his office on Saturday.

The Nazim told the traders that a request had been made to the Punjab government to abolish the lighting and advertisement taxes which had been kept in the local government system.

Hamid Nawaz asked the traders to cooperate with the TMA and avoid encroachments on public land, footpaths and roadsides.

He told the delegations that traffic police were responsible for booking wrong parkings while lifting of the wrongly-parked cars was the duty of the TMA staff.

The traffic police, he said, had been informed about this. The TMA has three fork-lift trucks which have been deputed at different places of the city to lift the wrongly-parked cars.

Later on, the Tehsil Nazim had a round of different areas and bazaars including Raja Bazaar, Talwaran Bazaar, Murree Road, Shamsabad, Sadiqabad, Muslim Town and Rehmanabad. He noticed that a hotel had been illegally built in Rehmanabad and directed its demolition.