KARACHI, March 30: Residents of Lyari Town have expressed concern over the rampant encroachments around school buildings, hospitals and other public places and demanded immediate removal of the same.

They pointed out that encroachers had been occupying footpaths, roads and parking space along the outer walls of the schools and hospitals. The parking space, they added, had virtually been annexed by the automobile dealers and mechanics.

A visit to different localities in the town showed that schoolchildren and patients especially experience immense hardship due to congestion and the resultant clogging of vehicular traffic.

Adverse affects of the encroachments could be gauged from the extremely miserable conditions prevailing all around the public schools on the main Chawkiwara Road, Juna Kumharwara Road, Shah Latif Bhittai Road, Lyari Degree College, Lyari Technical College where vehicles meant for repair, sale or other purposes could any time be seen parked illegally.

It is observed that upcountry transporters have converted the roads into their own parking lots either with the connivance of a powerful 'mafia' or some unscrupulous officials.

A visit to Chawkiwara Road, Juna Kumharwara Road, Faqir Mohammad Dura Khan Road, Fida Husain Shaikha Road, Haji Pir Mohammad Road revealed that all these roads have become places of the encroachers business establishments.

"The encroachers are causing inconvenience and hardship not only to passers-by, but also to commuters as their business activities lead to traffic jams," a resident, Imran Raj, lamented.

Another resident said: "It is ironic to note that the anti-encroachment departments of the city government and the town administration have turned a blind eye towards this problem despite receiving many complaints from public."