ISLAMABAD: The recent rainstorm damaged the roofs of four flower shops in the Super Market.

The tenants of the shops and traders of the market said they had been contacting the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to get the shops repaired.

Almost 15 years ago, the CDA established 12 flower shops in the Super Market and rented them to traders for Rs2,000 to Rs10,000 per month. There was a tin roof on the back of the shops under which traders used to prepare bouquets. During the storm on Monday, the roof fell on the flower shops breaking the cemented sheets over the four of them.

The tenants, including Mohammad Ashraf alias Fauji, Gohar Iqbal and Mohammad Naeem, started visiting different offices of the CDA to get the roofs repaired. As the shops are the property of the CDA, the traders cannot carry out any reconstruction work.

Sarfraz Mughal, the president of the Super Market Traders Welfare Association, told Dawn that a delegation of traders held meetings with the officers of the CDA directorate of municipal administration (DMA) but the issue could not be resolved.

“We had a meeting with Deputy Director General DMA Hamza Shafqaat and informed him about the issue. Later, we also met Member Administration Amir Ali Ahmed who promised to send someone to visit the shops,” he said.

Later, deputy director Malik Azhar visited the shops but the CDA management has been delaying the reconstruction of the shops. He said the traders were worried that the expected new spell of rain would also damage the shops from inside.

“We have also offered to the CDA to allow the traders to reconstruct the roofs without asking for any compensation. But the civic agency is not willing even to agree to the offer,” he said.

When contacted, CDA spokesman Ramzan Sajid said they had not refused to reconstruct the shops.

“But we have a procedure under which teams of the DMA and the engineering wing would visit the place to analyse the damage. After that, a tender is floated to carry out the work. However, in this case, the management is considering starting the work on its own resources for which there would be no need for a tender.”

He expressed the hope that the construction work would be started within a day or two.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2015

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