KARACHI: A day after Sindh chief minister’s explicit directives to clear city roads and footpaths from encroachments, the civic and local government authorities have identified 30 main roads in the city to launch an anti-encroachment operation from Thursday (today) in the first phase.

The authorities have immediately cancelled all the temporary permissions issued by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) or town municipal corporations (TMCs) in their respective jurisdiction to companies and individuals for storing building materials and placing generators on public spaces.

Installation of huge generators on walkways and footpaths across the city, especially in the business district South, leads to frequent traffic jams as the pedestrians have to walk on the roads and streets, disrupting the vehicular traffic.

Besides illegal and unregulated parking in several parts of the city, different town and civic bodies have also issued permissions to private parties to set up parking lots on public spaces along roads and streets, causing severe traffic congestions and piling miseries on people.

Ghani asks KMC, towns to cancel NOCs for placing generators, storing building materials on public spaces

Presiding over a meeting with the municipal commissioners of the towns and KMC, Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani directed them to immediately rescind all the temporary permissions and no-objection certificates issued by them to the builders for storing materials along the roads and streets and to people for placing huge generators on the pavements.

He said that the first phase of the anti-encroachment drive would be launched in the city along 30 main roads identified by the municipal commissioner of the KMC and towns.

Besides encroachments, the meeting also took into consideration waste issues, anti-social elements and drug addicts damaging vital civic infrastructure in the city.

Informed sources said that all town municipal commissioners had submitted their reports to the additional chief secretary identifying the main roads in their respective jurisdictions for anti-encroachment operations.

They said that the meeting had decided to start removal of encroachments on the identified main roads from Thursday. According to an official statement issued here, the LG minister told the participants of the meeting that Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had expressed serious resentment at the issue of encroachments and showed his seriousness in tackling this problem.

It may be noted that the chief minister had on Tuesday once again ordered for removal of rampant encroachments and illegal parking across the city, ordering the constitution of an anti-encroachment task force.

Earlier on July 12, he had directed the KMC, town municipal corporations and city administration to remove encroachments from public spaces, observing that encroachments on footpaths, green belts, walkways and streets had defaced the city and caused serious issues in the flow of traffic but no authority was ready to remove them.

The local government minister, who was also appointed as head of the anti-encroachment committee along with the mayor and municipal commissioners, also directed the towns to submit reports in the next 24 hours about income and other details of the road-cutting permissions, other temporary NOCs, and charged parking zones in their respective jurisdictions. He also sought details of the charged parking managed by the KMC.

He directed the town administrations to provide comprehensive reports in the next 24 hours about temporary permissions issued for storing building materials and placing generators in their jurisdictions.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2024