LAHORE, June 5: The City District Government and the Data Ganj Bakhsh Town Municipal Administration on Saturday started demolishing 36 encroachments choking the central drain from the Lakshmi Chowk area.

The CDG and the TMA squads launched their operation on the Nisbet Road drain after getting the area cordoned off by the police. Shops built on the McLeod Road were demolished later on. They did not face any resistance in the removal of encroachments as the 13 people who had built shops on the drain had been forewarned by District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood.

Water and Sanitation Agency, revenue, police, fire-brigade, Wapda, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited and Pakistan Telecommunication Company staff assisted the CDG and the TMA officials.

The encroachments proposed to be demolished included a private and a CDG lavatory on the Nisbet Road, a tea stall, six glass shops and godowns on the McLeod Road, 17 shops in the Cooper Road Glass Market, a plaza and five shops on the Hall Road and extensions of seven houses on the Fane Road.

Later presiding over a meeting, Mian Amer Mahmood said the operation would continue till the removal of all the encroachments. He said investigations had also been started for identification of the officials involved in the construction of shops and plazas on the drain.

The Nazim ordered cancellation of leaves of all the revenue and the Solid Waste Management officials.

He said the CDG had decided to remove encroachments from eight drains on a priority basis because these obstructed speedy drainage of water resulting in flooding of the low-lying areas during the rainy season every year. The central drain had been selected because it was used for the disposal of rainwater from the lowest areas in the provincial metropolis, he said.