JHANG, July 27: The Jhang district administration has launched an operation to demolish illegal structures on the state land around Ayub Chowk for smooth flow of traffic.

The one-kilometre road from Sessions Chowk to Ayub Chowk, which is the main road running between the entry and exit points of the city has been occupied by transporters who have built their terminals here. Transporters preferred Ayub Chowk terminals to the general bus stand near Adhiwal because of its location in the middle of the city.

A few years ago, a bureaucrat transporter using his official authority influenced the authorities to allow his transport company to operate from a terminal near Ayub Chowk. His rival transporter, who was the member of the National Assembly and his father a tehsil nazim, followed the suit and established his terminal at the chowk.

After the opening of two terminals, eight more terminals were launched on the road in the next few months. Buses emerging from these terminals start their journey at a snail’s pace up to Ayub Chowk creating impediments for other vehicles.

If Sessions Chowk Road is occupied by bus terminals, its opposite Sargodha Road has a large number of truck stands on it. By every truck terminal, there is a workshop. Tucks entering or leaving the terminals block the traffic. The road linking Sessions Chowk with Fawara Chowk is not without problems. This two-way road is bordered by the official residence of judges on one side while iron stores on the other side.

Most of the time, the road is used as a parking lot for trailers which load and unload iron bars there. A district and sessions judge said that he was having sleepless nights due to rattling loading and unloading of iron bars by his official residence.

If roads have been misused, vendors and shopkeepers have blocked footpaths along all major roads. The footpath outside the residence of the DCO has been blocked by an oil dealer who has built a cemented wall on it.

The encroacher is so daring that he changes oil of the vehicles outside the official residence of the DCO in broad day light. The matter has been reported to the DCO many times but he is not interested in dismantling the illegal wall.

The public sees the operation with cautious. According to human rights activist Qamar Abbas Zaidi, the government has yet to do a lot to achieve the desired results. Mr Zaidi expressed his reservations regarding the success of the campaign, saying one should not be optimistic about the success of the operation unless encroachments along roads leading to Ayub Chowk were cleared to allow vehicles for a smooth access to the interchange.