HYDERABAD: The district administration began anti-encroachment drive in the City and Latifabad talukas on Monday in compliance with the Jan 28 order of Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad circuit bench.

The administration officials along with Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (HMC) anti-encroachment staff visited the areas where encroachments had been raised along main roads and streets.

City assistant commissioner Ibrahim Arbab faced resistance from encroachers in Hala Naka area when the municipal staff tried to clear a section of the National Highway of encroachments.

The encroachers were mostly vendors who had occupied part of the road and kept used furniture on it for sale. The officer finally got all of their stuff removed from the road, pulled down a pylon signboard of a filling station and sealed five shops in Azeemushhan Market opposite City cloth market.

The administration had issued prior warnings to shop owners asking them to remove additional structures as it was allowing some time to encroachers to dismantle unauthorized structures themselves or face demolition.

The City taluka has the largest number of encroachments of different sizes, which lead to the worst traffic congestion in the area. The illegal structures keep multiplying because anti-encroachment drives are not carried out by municipal authorities on a regular basis.

The AC said that areas of Tower Market, Station Road, Risala Road, tonga and bus stands were badly hit by menace of encroachments.

Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro said that SHC had given 30 days for the removal of encroachments in Hyderabad but the administration had started working on it from the day the order was passed. “We are facing resistance during the drive and we may need more police force to avoid any untoward incidents,” he said.

He said that the City AC faced some trouble during the operation. All-out efforts would be made to clear the roads and streets as desired by the court, he said.

Latifabad assistant commissioner Ishtiaque Mangi led the operation in GOR Colony and his team started demolition of structures in Bengali Colony. The operation would continue on Tuesday as well. The team pulled down shops, offices of real estate agencies, some rooms and part of an office as well.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2021