RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC)’s latest drive seems limited to removing motorcycles from roadsides instead of a full-blown campaign to remove all sorts of encroachments in the city areas.

The drive has been launched after claiming for many months that Raja Bazaar, Murree Road and adjoining bazaars would be made free of all encroachments to ensure easy traffic flow.

After a break of three months, the RMC resumed its drive. This time, RMC Administrator Aamir Khattak, who is also commissioner of Rawalpindi Division, claimed to launch a plan to make Murree Road anti-enroachment free. However, the drive seems limited to removing bikes wrongly parked on roads.

It is pertinent to mention that in 2023, during the tenure of caretaker Punjab government led by chief minister Mohsin Naqvi, a plan was made to make Murree Road and Commercial Market model areas, free from encroachments. Work on this was stopped after the general elections in February.

Presiding over an anti-encroachment meeting on Sunday, Mr Khattak said that a special team had been formed to eliminate encroachments across the city.

According to the plan, initially both sides of Murree Road, Fawara Chowk to Raja Bazar, Iqbal Road to Fawara Chowk, Commercial Market Satellite Town, Transformer Chowk and areas of Sadiqabad will be cleared of encroachments, after which other areas will also be cleared.

During the operation, police have also been requested to maintain law and order and support the anti-encroachment team.

Mr Khattak said that anti-encroachment operation becomes successful only when there is continuity in it. He asked the representatives of the traders’ union to ask the shopkeepers in their respective markets to abide by the law.

According to RMC officials, the operation was started by RMC Chief Municipal Officer Imran Ali from Murree Road and Commercial Market. They informed the meeting that five trucks of goods were already seized. r

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2024