LAHORE: The City District Government of Lahore is carrying out an anti-encroachment operation across the Punjab capital, however, the Data Ganj Bakhsh Town Municipal Administration seems reluctant to enter the Bilal Ganj, reportedly the country’s biggest market of condemned vehicles, used and refurbished automobile parts.

Sources say that though the teams of respective town municipal administrations, headed by the assistant commissioners or town administrators, have succeeded in retrieving the state land worth billions in the ongoing anti-encroachment operation, they have not cleaned roads and streets encroached by vendors at Bilal Ganj.

“The situation at the market is very bad as the vendors have left no space for pedestrians and motorists by putting pieces of the condemned vehicles there,” an official told Dawn on Sunday.

He said the situation was giving an impression that the Data Ganj Bakhsh Town administration might be afraid of the wrath of a provincial minister (an influential MPA of the area) if it launched anti-encroachment operation there. The official claimed that if the town officials launched an operation at Bilal Ganj they would succeed in retrieving state land.

On the other hand, the pedestrian and motorists continue facing problems while passing through the market because of encroachments.

“It seems that the Bilal Ganj vendors are using the market roads, streets, footpaths and passages as their personal property as they have encroached upon them,” Sohail, a pedestrian, commented while talking to this reporter. The officials should immediately launch an operation here, he recommended.

A CDGL spokesman said the people would soon see an operation at Data Ganj Bakhsh Town.

“We are removing encroachments from the main city roads in the first phase. When the team will enter city bazaars, markets and residential areas, etc in the second phase, the Bilal Ganj area will not be spared and it will also be cleared of all sorts of encroachments,” he explained.

The spokesman dispelled the impression that town officials were reluctant to launch operation at Bilal Ganj due to political pressure, saying the all public representatives had been taken on board before the operation.

“I am sure that none of the political personalities can pressurise the CDGL in this regard. The chief minister, MPAs, commissioner, DCO and all others concerned are taking personal interest to make the anti-encroachment drive successful,” the official claimed.

The AC (City) and Data Ganj Bakhsh Town municipal officer were not available for comments despite repeated calls made by this reporter.