QUETTA: The Quetta Metropolitan Corporation (QMC) has launched an anti-encroachment campaign and taken action against elements involved in occupying government lands and violating building codes.

A team headed by Deputy Commissioner Daud Khilji and QMC Deputy Mayor Younas Baloch paid surprise visits to different places on Saturday. QMC Chief Officer Attaullah Baloch and chief of anti-encroachment cell Mohammad Aslam Baloch accompanied them.

The QMC personnel sealed a building at Yet Road where illegal shops had been raised. The space was earmarked for the construction of a basement. Four illegally constructed buildings were sealed on the London Street.

The QMC team visited private hospitals, including Doctors Hospital, Al Shifa Hospital, Kidney Care General Hospital, Yaseen Hospital and Akram Hospital and directed their managements to remove illegal parking on roads and provide parking facility in basements of their buildings.

The team directed the officials concerned to stop the `illegal’ construction of a private hospital in Golimar Chowk. It ordered for removal of encroachments raised in the name of two private hospitals in Imdad Chowk area and in another locality.

Talking to journalists, the deputy commissioner and deputy mayor said citizens faced problems because of illegal car parking on roads and around commercial plazas. They said that builders and land mafias were involved in occupying government lands in several areas.

They said these mafias had converted residential houses into private hospitals without getting approval from departments concerned.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2015

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