RAWALPINDI: Mayor Sardar Naseem on Wednesday asked Raja Bazaar traders to voluntarily remove their encroachments from pavements and roads, or else they would be removed during a Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) operation on Wednesday, Dec 14.

Mr Naseem visited Raja Bazaar, City Saddar Road, Bara Bazaar and Liaquat Road to inspect the encroachment situation and hold meetings with traders’ association representatives.

During the meeting, Mr Naseem said the provincial government directed for action to be taken against encroachments to ease traffic in the city, and an operation would be carried out from Dec 14 in this regard.

“Traders’ associations should play their role to remove all the encroachments by shopkeepers in the main bazaars, and if any shopkeeper is found to have encroached on footpaths and roadsides, police cases will be registered against him,” he warned.

The traders agreed to help the RMC, but also pointed out parking issues in the city’s main markets.

The mayor said traffic police and the RMC had made a plan that would not permit parking on main roads other than one line allocated for motorcycles.

“A joint team of the RMC and traffic police will mark the line and whoever violates this, their vehicle will be confiscated or a fine will be imposed on the owner of the vehicle,” he said.

He added that the government is also working on constructing another multi-level parking space in Raja Bazaar, which would resolve the parking issue in main markets.

The new parking space will be built at the site of the old RMC offices, he said.

Rawalpindi Traders Association spokesperson Naveed Kanwal said the traders were in favour of removing encroachments from the city’s main roads and pavements, and had offered their support to civic organisations in this regard.

However, he said, RMC officials usually remove sheds installed at shops to protect from the weather, just to provoke the shopkeepers. “After such actions, RMC officials faced resentment from traders. It is just tactics of the officials to stop the operation against encroachments,” he claimed.

He added that the RMC should remove encroachments from the city’s roads, but its officials were involved in accepting bribes from stall vendors and cart pushers. An indiscriminate operation is needed, he said.

He also said that traders wanted ease the flow of traffic on the main roads of Raja Bazaar and nearby markers so that visitors can travel to the markets easily.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2017