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Where do the homeless go? A small boy and his sister are perched on the pile of their household belongings collected by their parents moments before their thatched home was turned into a heap of rubble by the city governments demolition squad. A picture run by the newspapers on Thursday show the governments anti-encroachment campaign smashing through the huts erected along the abandoned railway tracks in Gulshan-i-Iqbal. The same day newspaper reports say the city government has selected 100 points on certain roads to build overhead pedestrian bridges at a cost of Rs600 million. And that the plan to build the tallest building of the country is also being carried out. There are underpasses, flyovers, roads and several other mega-projects which keep construction workers busy, day in and out. The denizens of this city are lucky and should be proud that these multi-billion-rupee projects when completed will enable the city to stand tall among its counterparts in the developing world. Funds for these projects seem to be flowing steadily. A report in Fridays newspapers says that Rs70 million earmarked in the last years budget for the purchase of animals for the citys three zoos the Karachi zoo, Safari Park and Landhi-Korangi zoo — could not be utilized and, therefore, lapsed. So, there are more funds than can be utilized. When newspaper pictures show that a large number of people are asleep in parks at night, all of them have not been driven there by power breakdowns at home. Similarly, people sprawling in and outside hospitals are not necessarily attendants of patients admitted to these health-care centres. Drive through Saddar at night and you will see how many people are lying on the footpaths in front of shuttered shops and other business houses. Why do people live in shanty towns, or katchi abadis, where there are no paved streets, no sanitation system, and no easy access to transport, water and power supplies? The answer is quite simple: they cannot afford to live at a better place. But, certainly, they cannot be allowed to go on living under these subhuman conditions. These spots are festering sores, blemishing the citys face, and cannot be permitted to gain permanence. What the government is desired to do before it razes an illegal settlement, it should take a humane approach. Where will the displaced people go when uprooted all of a sudden? Will not the weather conditions aggravate their problem? Cant the government make temporary shelters for them? It is not that all ‘homeless people are staying in the open. There are those overwhelming numbers of respectable people who live in rented houses out of compulsion and dream for a decent home of their own. These people with limited incomes face a dilemma. On the one hand, they think the month moves too slowly to keep pace with their fast depleting monthly incomes and, on the other, the day for the payment of rent comes too soon. The governments so-called housing schemes apparently aimed to provide such families with shelters, in the end prove just money-minting gimmicks. Take the example of the much-publicized Taiser Town housing scheme. The government says it is a great favour to the low-income people. Desperate people submitted applications for plots measuring 120 square yards months ago. And see how people were swindled! They were supposed to deposit Rs15,500 with the application for a plot. The applicants were informed that Rs500 of it was not refundable in case the application is rejected in the balloting process. With the money of tens of thousands of people in its treasury, the department concerned has forgotten to do the balloting. What it remembers is to earn profits at the cost of the poor. And the application form says that it will take five years to develop and hand over the plots to their owners. The countdown will begin after the plots are marked and initial formalities are completed. People who have put in money into such schemes before may testify that these schemes take much longer time than the aspirants are made to believe when the applicant, if still alive, becomes the proud owner of his plot. And a mere plot of land does not means a home. There is still a lot of hassle to go through. When will the department take the first step the balloting? Rickshaw power Auto-rickshaws have been much in the news during the last couple of weeks. First it was a protest demonstration by transporters, the majority of whom was rickshaw drivers. They crippled the city to unprecedented proportions. The sufferers cursed them, but their supporters saw it as a display of ‘rickshaw power. The Sindh governors order that registration of rickshaws with two-stroke engines be banned after June 30 has probably been implemented. The three-wheeled vehicle is the noisiest, the biggest air and noise pollutant and the most uncomfortable mode of travel on city roads. Past attempts to push it off the road have failed. For valid reasons, a big chunk of the population besides the people whose living depends on these machines want rickshaw to stay on. They argue that it is easily available for short distances, women and children feel safe in it, and it easily squeezes past other vehicles and through narrow lanes. So, rickshaw is the Shrew that needs to be tamed and not eliminated. Transporters demand that rickshaws be allowed as they are is not worth consideration. What the Sindh government wants is that these vehicles be made less of a trouble than utility. Two-stroke vehicles, in simple words, use oil with fuel and the combination enhances its load-carrying capacity but generates too much smoke. Further alterations in the system enable the vehicle to consume less fuel and produce much more noise. The government wants such vehicles to be turned into four-stroke ones, desirably fitted with CNG kits. Rickshaw operators should take it as an opportunity. Organ robbery It was spine-chilling to learn that a man was robbed of his kidney when he went to a hospital in North Nazimabad to have his affected gall bladder removed. When the horrified 30-year-old victim learned about it, he lodged a report with the police on Thursday night against the surgeon and his paramedical staff. Illegal organ trade has been flourishing across the country for quite some time. People parting with their vital organs for monetary consideration to pay back their swelling debts, to marry off a daughter, etc — may have some justification. But a doctor, a foreign qualified at that, stooping to such an avaricious act is not understandable. It is a crime more heinous than slaughtering a human. The punishment for it should be accordingly. Even if it were an act of criminal negligence, as the doctor in police custody claims, it deserves the harshest punishment. But the victims statement shows that it was deliberate. His family was shown a gall bladder that contained stones while the later tests proved that his gall bladder was not removed. It also needs to be investigated if more such cases have happened. The incident also needs to caution people against a repeat of this act when they go for such a surgery. It was unthinkable before this case came to the surfce. Rains at last Monsoon showers lashed lower Sindh last week. But what Karachi received was no more than a light drizzle which, if newspaper reports are to be believed, did not throw the citys electricity network into disarray. While the weather turned pleasant much-dreaded winds from Cholistan and Rajasthan stopped paying us an unwelcome visit humidity hasnt shown any signs of a let-up. As a result, you dont feel hot as long as youre in a draught. But the moment you step into a poorly ventilated room, you get sweaty at once and your clothes remain damp for hours. But if PTVs weatherman knows what hes talking about, such hot and humid days are numbered. That is to say, Karachi will also get a fair share of expected monsoon rains over the next week. Interestingly, the city government seems to have taken these meteorological predictions seriously and has come up with a self-defeating method of dealing with clogging of open drainage channels consequent upon rains. In order to ensure that clogged drains do not produce standing pools of rainwater, it has taken out debris and placed it upon roads. So, you see heaps and heaps of black, stinky sewage on the roads of the city, waiting to be washed away by rainwater. So much for planning and foresight. — Karachian email: karachi_notebook@hotmail.com
