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| August 09, 2007 | Thursday | Rajab 24, 1428 |
KARACHI: Pedestrians losing right to use footpaths
KARACHI, Aug 8: There has been a constant increase in the number of pedestrians killed and wounded in road accidents every day but the rampant encroachment of pavements and roads is showing no sign of a decline despite anti-encroachment campaigns launched every now and then over the last few years.
The encroachments on footpaths and roads are blamed for a large number of accidents involving pedestrians and people are hit by fast-moving vehicles due to the narrow space left by encroachers for them to pass through.
The other factors responsible for the increased casualties in road accidents involving pedestrians are absence of pavements along busy roads, non-existence of pedestrian bridges at vital spots along major thoroughfares and reduced sidewalks in commercial centres of the city
A survey of the city roads shows that quite a large number of footpaths have either vanished or have become heavily encroached upon by roadside traders and vendors. They include operators of eating houses, showrooms, shops, cabins, etc. Finding almost no space to pass by, the pedestrians often have to walk on roads and sometimes fall victim to fast-moving vehicles.
Ironically, the city government and town municipal administrations seem reluctant to restore the pedestrians’ right to use footpaths and remove encroachments, allegedly due to some political considerations.
A coordinator of the former city nazim, Niamatullah Khan, had once conceded to this reporter while explaining the then city government’s policy that those who had already encroached upon footpaths partially or fully were not being removed but no one was being allowed to indulge in land-grabbing. It was, however, noted that people continued to encroach upon footpaths and roads all along the tenure of Mr Khan.
Though the menace of encroachment by operators of roadside business has persisted since long, it got a boost in 1999/2000 when the then senior director (land) of the now defunct KMC coined the term ‘land-use charges’ to make room for such businesses. It was alleged that his move was meant only to oblige a political leader who owned a barbecue house in Boat Basin area. The official recommended to the then KMC administrator, Brig (retd) Abdul Haq, that business on footpaths should be allowed on payment of land-use charges. He justified the idea by arguing that the KMC could be able to collect millions from such business operators. Eventually, the roadside business was legalised and the eating houses were allowed to use footpaths to serve their customers. The land-use charges were based on the number of chairs and tables put up by an eating house on footpath. Since then, hundreds of traders and businessmen have set up their eating houses on footpaths across the city usurping the pedestrians’ right to use the pavements for their safety.
The legalisation of business on footpaths also opened up an avenue of extortion for the officials concerned, including those of the city government’s land department, town municipal administrations, police, etc. Since the land-use charges are collected by the TMA concerned, there is every opportunity for the TMA officials to mint money from the footpath users by offering them less than the actual charges.
The major roads with their footpaths having been encroached upon heavily are Jamshed Road, Khalid Bin Waleed Road, New M.A. Jinnah Road, main University Road, Burnes Road, Frere Road, Tariq Road and Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s main road.
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