KOHAT, May 5: A scheduled anti-encroachment drive has fizzled out here due to non-cooperation of the elected representatives allegedly involved in illegal businesses, Dawn has learnt.

District Coordination Officer Shahab Shah had ordered the removal of all encroachments, including extension of shops at bazaars, cabins and handcarts at the old bus stand and jail road.

Assistant Coordination Officer Mudassar Riaz at a meeting held in the Circuit House on April 27 had requested traders to cooperate in the drive and claimed that he would remove all encroachments in a day, i.e. on April 30.

The business community had expressed its reservations regarding the drive and informed the ACO that the government should first reserve car-parking spaces outside the Shah Faisal and tehsil gates apart from removing illegal taxi-stands at the bazaar.

The scheduled drive for which all preparations had been completed was postponed indefinitely as most of the illegal cabins, taxi-stands and handcarts belonged to the elected representatives of the district and tehsil councils.

A Dawn survey revealed that the Tehsil Municipal Administration had allowed hundreds of handcarts at the old bus stand and the income earned through them was distributed among several officials, including councillors and nazims for Rs50 each per day.

Similarly, the illegal kiosks constructed at the old jail site, chicken market, city post office street, and Mustafa bazaar which had been auctioned off to the elected representatives for Rs5000 per annum were given on rent to Afghan refugees and some locals for Rs3000 per month.

Although the administration had conducted a small operation in the chicken market and removed some cages placed on the roadside there, it proved to be only an eye wash.