LAHORE, Nov 23: Every vacant space in the city has been taken over by land-grabbers and small-time purveyors over the last few decades.

Those who have illegally occupied state land — especially footpaths on busy streets — include fruit sellers, vendors selling eatables and other items of daily use, workshop owners and those who have extended their shops at the expense of pedestrians in overcrowded markets.

The City District Government, which has inherited this mess from the former metropolitan corporation and Lahore Development Authority, seems to have given up as it has become insensitive to repeated public outcry against encroachments, which create many hardships for pedestrians.

There is hardly any area in the city where footpaths have not been occupied by encroachers with the collusion of CDG officials. Fruit sellers, authorized and unauthorized parking lot contractors, owners of makeshift workshops, purveyors of electronics and sanitary ware and proprietors of car showrooms fearlessly misuse the footpaths and pavements in almost all city markets. On Queens Road, Jail Road, Hall Road, Brandreth Road, Abid Market, Shah Alam Market and Circular Road, footpaths have been obliterated by encroachers and at places ramps constructed on state land to facilitate the movement of cars displayed for sale or to put electronic items and sanitary ware.

The chaos inside the Walled City and on Circular Road defies description. The Shah Alam Market and the bazaars inside the Walled City have become so congested that it is almost impossible to even walk in them during the rush hours without rubbing shoulders with others. Promises made by traders through their associations that they would remove encroachments on footpaths and municipal land have never been fulfilled.

Shopkeepers in different areas of the city continue to extend their shops for displaying their merchandise without fear of being nabbed. Municipal laws do exist on the statute book but only graft and muscle power prevail when it comes to misusing state land. Officials of the former metropolitan corporation, Lahore development authority and the police department, who were supposed to enforce these laws, deliberately looked the other way when encroachments first appeared on the cityscape.

For many shopkeepers and vendors the right to encroach has become “inalienable”. Occasionally, “special drives” are launched by the concerned officials to remove encroachments from congested areas of the city but without much success. When these raids are planned, the very officials who are supposed to carry these out forewarn the encroachers of the time and date of raids, who remove the temporary encroachments to escape punishment. However, a couple of hours later the encroachments return.

The objective of these raids is to cleanse the city of the ever-proliferating scourge of encroachments, which have blighted the once pleasant ambience of Lahore. It is not difficult to fathom why the CDG officials are so oblivious to the mess created by encroachments on footpaths and municipal land, which affect thousands of citizens daily. It is not difficult either to understand that in this sordid business of large-scale encroachment a lot of money changes hands daily, weekly or monthly.—PPI