KOHAT, Jan 25: Growing encroachments in Kohat city has been causing routine traffic jams and hurdles to the pedestrians while the tehsil municipal administration is least bothered to take action.

"It is a competition among the shopkeepers. One displays items outside his shop limits defined by the TMA while others follow to attract buyers. Yes, we are wrong and some of us have occupied footpaths, but no official has the courage to take action," said one Arshad, who runs a sports goods shop outside Shah Faisal Gate.

When asked, in-charge of Kohat traffic police, Peshawar Khan, blamed the TMA's inaction for all the mess in the city. He claimed that the TMA officials had established illegal cabins and allowed thousands of handcarts on the Jail Road.

The handcarts block mobility on several roads the whole day. Local people say that handcart owners are patronised by the TMA and other officials and they are released within hours of any operation against them.

Tajir action committee president Haji Abid said that the TMA should demolish the cabins at the Jail Plaza and allow limited number of handcarts on the roads after proper auction in this regard.

He said that if this was done the traders would not object even to forcible removal of encroachments from front of their shops.

He said that the district government should remove all covers from the sewer and ensure its cleanliness.

However, he alleged that the TMA was corrupt and an influential man was daily minting Rs40,000 from the cart owners on one road alone. He criticised the high-ups who had been receiving free vegetables, fruit and mutton from the shopkeepers daily as bribe.

Sources said that the TMA had given illegal contracts and jobs to members of local pressure groups as a bribe to remain silent over massive corruption in the department.

The corruption of the relevant departments could be easily assessed from the fact that land mafia is occupying the costly land near the railway track without any official check. The mafia has established makeshift cabins and constructed cemented shops.

Even in one case a man has turned a piece of the said land into a guava orchard.

The illegal occupation of the railway land started soon after the department stopped the train service on Kohat-Hangu-Thall route five years ago. The railway can earn billions of rupees by selling the precious land along the main highway up to the border of Kurram Agency.

An official of the Railways Department here told Dawn on condition of anonymity that some high-ups came from Rawalpindi and Lahore the other day and allotted the illegally occupied land to 'the grabbers' at a throw away price on lease without holding an open auction.