GUJRAT, Oct 31: The Punjab government on Thursday upgraded the Gujrat municipal committee to the status of a municipal corporation.

TMA Administrator Farooq Rasheed confirmed that the local government department had issued a formal notification in this regard.

A demand was made to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to give the status of a municipal corporation to Gujrat during his visit here around three weeks back. The CM had then given a verbal approval of the demand and directed the Gujrat district coordination officer to prepare a summary for the purpose.

The district administration had earlier divided the city into 50 wards during the recent delimitation process but following the status of a municipal corporation to Gujrat the wards will again be changed into union councils.

DRIVE: The tehsil municipal administration launched an operation against encroachments along GT Road from Eidgah to fruit market.

Forty officials of the anti-encroachment cell of the TMA, along with the police, cleared the greenbelt and service road areas of illegal encroachments on both sides of the highway passing through the city.

TMA Administrator Farooq Rasheed, DSP City Ghulam Mustafa Gilani and DSP Traffic Sohail Fazil remained present at the site during the operation.

The owners of the kiosks and other vendors of the fruit market protested against the drive, saying it had been launched without any prior notice to them.

However, Farooq Rasheed said the kiosk owners and other illegal encroachers were served notices to evacuate the site but in vain.

ELECTROCUTED: A woman was electrocuted to death while her brother was seriously burnt in a bid to rescue her after she touched a live wire passing over the roof of her house.

Shakeela of Rehmatabad, Sargodha Road, was spreading clothes on the roof when she accidentally touched the electricity wire.

Her brother, Kaka, came to rescue her but he also received an electric shock and burns. He was shifted to Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Hospital.