LAHORE, June 20: There are at least 627 buildings found as dangerous in a survey conducted by the City District Government, Lahore, with the help of all the nine town administrations two years ago.
Their owners will be issued notices within a couple of days for vacating and demolishing them to pre-empt any untoward incident.
The exercise is repeated each year before the start of monsoon with no results. A couple of lives are lost every year when one of these buildings collapses, for the owners or tenants of the dilapidated structures never bother to shift to some safe places.
The government officials, in case of a mishap, would pay a visit to the area, promise to take measures for averting future casualties and announce compensation for the dead and the injured. And the life will go on as usual until next tragedy.
District Coordination Officer (DCO) Muhammad Ijaz says the residents are not ready to vacate their houses and when pressed, they demand some alternate accommodation. But, the CDGL does not afford to finance shelters to the homeless at this large scale.
The Punjab government had after a building collapse incident last year considered a proposal for vacating the dangerous houses after paying some amount to the residents. But there is no word on the issue since then.
Riaz Ahmad, one of the three tenants in a dilapidated building in Bibi Pakdaman area, says he is well aware of the risks he and his seven-member family are to face by residing in the rundown triple-storey five-marla house. He says he has but Hobson’s choice.
Either he has to arrange some makeshift house like a tent or move to some relatives. As the housing units of his relations are too small to accommodate his, he is left only with the first option, which is also not trouble free.
“Who will allow me to erect my tent or hut in front of his house? Even if some one does, how can I get connections of various utilities? Fear of outlaws will be an added trouble while there will be no respite from the weather-related miseries there. So if there is risk in both cases, why should not I go for facing them where I am (presently residing)?”
Mr Ahmad claims that his landlord Muhammad Javed has enough resources for necessary repairs of the house to make it at least risk-free for the dwellers. But he is not doing it for reasons best known to him.
The landlord was not available for comments when this reporter visited the area.
However, a couple of shopkeepers in the locality say that Mr Javed has time and again warned his tenants to vacate his house but they do not for finding such a cheap accommodation in and around Bibi Pakdaman is impossible. According to them, each of the three tenants may not be paying more than Rs3,000 per month rent as all the three families are residing here for the last three generations.
They claim that the owner wants to demolish the house and construct a commercial structure there instead to get maximum benefit from his piece of land.
Most of the dilapidated buildings, 250, are located in Data Ganj Bakhsh Town, while Ravi Town follows with 129 such structures. There are 72 dangerous houses in Shalimar Town, 70 in Aziz Bhatti Town, 40 in Nishtar Town, 38 in Iqbal Town and 28 in Gulberg Town.
Samanabad and Wagah towns have not bothered to conduct any survey and submit their reports to the district authorities.
