KARACHI, April 19: Residents of Katrak Compound, near Saddar Dawakhana, have been experiencing great inconvenience and hardship due to congestion created by vendors whose stalls and pushcarts had been removed from the roads and streets of nearby Empress Market.

The compound is one of the oldest residential blocks in the city inhabited by members of Parsi community since long. At present, the residents are mainly the senior citizens who may require emergency support at any moment.

In absence of an effective system, the residents find it very difficult to pass through the vital stretch of road linking Empress Market/Saddar Dawakhana with the adjoining localities.

Apart from the full day-time heavy and disorderly traffic, the illegally created ‘pushcarts bazaar’ has added to their miseries.

“It has become extremely difficult for me to even continue with my routine walk,” complained one of the senior citizens. Living in Katrak Compound since his childhood, the old man pointed out that the constant noise and shouts by the vendors had devastated the inmates’ peace of mind. Besides, he said, they used to create heaps of garbage before winding up the day’s business and there was no proper arrangement for cleanliness by the town administration.

Demanding a permanent solution to the rehabilitation of vendors and hawkers, the residents urged the town administration not to remove encroachments at the cost of other citizens’ comfortable living and other fundamental rights. They said that they were already facing the menace of unauthorized bus stand next to their residential compound.—PPI