The encroachments on all major roads and markets of the provincial capital Lahore remain a permanent nuisance for the citizens and commuters, exposing tall claims of the authorities about their anti-encroachment drives.
Continuous encroachment in the city shows a lack of ample strategy to end the menace permanently. Encroachers have become such a powerful mafia that they easily manage to re-encroach the roads and markets soon after any action is taken in anti-encroachment drives. The Municipal Corporation of Lahore (MCL) carried out several such drives during a year but they all have been proven useless.
Lahore Commissioner Captain (retd) Muhammad Usman recently ordered to vacate all the encroachments on city roads, especially on the roads, recently declared three model roads including, The Mall, Ferozpur Road and Jail Road. For the purpose, Anti-Encroachment Squads were established, comprising officials of the Lahore Development Authority, Lahore Waste Management Authority, Traffic Police, zonal offices, MCL and other relevant departments.
Earlier, in November 2021, Deputy Commissioner Lahore also directed to eliminate encroachments in the city amid rising smog and after the concerns of the authorities that the roads congested due to encroachments. This campaign was supervised by all the assistant commissioners of all the towns of the metropolis.
However, the issue persisted despite scores of anti-encroachment drives as one could easily observe that most of the city roads and markets were continuously causing trouble for commuters and visitors.
During a survey of Lahore’s famous Hall Road market it emerged that it was not just foot paths that were encroached but over 60 percent of roads were also encroached by vendors and motorists.
“I have set up my business not for free because I have to pay a daily rent to the shop behind me,” said a mobile accessories seller in front of a famous mobile shop at Hall Road. He said that besides daily payment to the shop, he also had to pay some money to the anti-encroachment officials whenever they came to visit. He added that many times his stall was confiscated by the MCL officials but he “managed” to get it back from them.
He further informed that not a single encroacher could swear in the market that he was running a business on footpath without paying any penny to government officials. “Everyone pays as per the nature of his setup, which varies from Rs200 to Rs1,000 per day,” he claimed.
This could easily be observed in stalls that have been installed in front of almost all the shops of Hall Road market. With many other vendors and bikes parked on roads, pedestrians and visitors have been forced to walk in the center of the road.
Malik Saqib, a representative of Hall Road Market Committee, told Minute Mirror that they had repeatedly requested the authorities to eliminate the encroachments from the market as it affected the business of many traders sitting in the shops located inside the market.
“We demanded that that operation should be carried out round the clock regardless whether it is encroached by any official of the market committee,” he said, adding that they requested authorities time and again to build a parking stand near the market as major space on the road was encroached by motorcycles. “Situation not just causes problems for customers but also businessmen of the market,” Saqib maintained.
Lahore’s Shah Alam Market, Ichra Bazar, Anarkali Bazar, McLeod Road, Circular Road and many others are famous for their business.
Like markets, citizens have to face huge trouble at many important roads and chowks where encroachers run their business under the nose of authorities.
While touching the Raiwind Road going from Canal Road side, one would be welcomed by vendors who run their businesses on the road at a major exit point from the city. Long queues of vehicles there are the result of encroachments, which can be observed till Ali Town’s Orange Train station.
An official in Data Ganj Buks Town admitted that the major reason for failure of all the previous anti-encroachment drives was corruption of concerned officials. Seeking anonymity, he told Minute Mirror that though the encroachment had become a permanent nuisance in the city and drives were also continued but it was hard to get off them now.
“This should have been planned a long ago while planning for the city,” he said, adding that encroachment would never end unless a new and comprehensive strategy was formed for the city.
He further said that in many markets, authorities could not eliminate the encroachments due to political pressure.
Lahore Commissioner spokesman Dr Abid Ali Saleemi said that it was the fact that citizens were facing problems due to encroachments on various places. Talking to Minute Mirror, he said that now a concrete strategy has been formed to eliminate encroachments and citizens would observe its results very soon.
“There is always gossip that officials are reluctant to remove encroachments after taking bribes but all drives end with a result,” he said while admitting that there were some flaws that encroachers encroached again after action.
