Where the anti-encroachment drive destined to end?
Garlanded: Osama Ahmad Waraich[/caption]
They say accusing all shopkeepers in the bazaar of making encroachments and harassing them was uncalled for, especially in the aftermath of the two disasters that struck Chitral this year.
In a telephonic interview with ChitralToday, some of the traders said in 1982 the width of the space in the Chitral bazaar was 12 feet. Later, the government decided to double the width of the road and purchased portions of the shops along the road from the owners. They said as a proof they still have the copies of the MCB cheques given to them by the government in lieu of their properties.
An old trader in the bazaar added that at the moment the width of the space between two lines of shops along the road in the bazaar is 24.5 feet. Somewhere it is more than 27 feet, he claimed.
With the arrival of the new deputy commissioner a few months ago, he added, the district administration swung into action and recently a red marking was made around four to five feet inside each of the shops on both sides of the road in the bazaar saying the land up to that red mark belonged to the state and would be retrieved from the encroachers.
The traders claimed that they had not made any encroachment and if they had occupied the road area the district administration should produce the map of the road. They also said the deputy commissioner’s directions to the owners to produce their ownership documents showing the size and location of the shops was irrelevant in the context of Chitral where the old property papers only contained the geographical location of the land from the four sides.
They also said there were encroachments in other areas of the town, including Xang Bazaar, officer colony in Denin, but the district administration seemed not in a mood to go after them.
“If one enters the Chitral town, they can see that the district nazim, Maghfirat Shah, has occupied public property and made it a part of its residential building in Jughur,” said the trader.
He added that the whole Chitral is witness that there used to be a jeep-able road in front of Mr Shah’s house but that particular portion of the road was encroached upon by him when he was the district nazim from 2005 to 2010.
But people of Chitral demanded that the campaign should not only be taken to its logical end in the town but should also be extended to other areas of the valley. They also demanded that the district administration should not ignore the violations done by influential figures.
When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Osama Ahmad Waraich told ChitralToday that as far as small or big shopkeepers are concerned, the campaign has to start from somewhere.
“I just want to say that this bazar action is a small part of the overall cleanliness campaign which will be carried out across the District, whoever has encroached, be it the district nazim, MNA, MPA or whoever, will have to vacate the land.”]]>
We request all the people not to politicize the good initiatives taken by DC Chitral in public interest. If shopkeepers have any grievance they must go to the court instead of making public procession and other negative tactics. After all people of Chitral fully support initiatives of DC in clearing encroachments as well as closing hotels etc on the basis of unhygienic cleanliness conditions and pray for long life of Chitral. DC Chitral always zindabad and our humble prayers are always with you. You are the only officer who are taking care of people rather than opportunists. For shopkeepers it is our humble request that clearing encroachments does,t an issue for him, it is the owner of the shop “the wealthy capitalist” will suffer on the basis of their illegal encroachment. Why innocent shopkeepers become tools at the hand of shop-owner. Due to encroachment there is no pedestrian in Chitral bazar and people are suffering for the last many years and non of the responsible officer took notice of the situation. In this grim situation DC Chitral arrived as blessing from God for rescue of innocent and oppressed people of Chitral from the clutches of wealthy capitalist class in the form of shop owner, hotel owners etc. We also request DC not to compromise even single inch of encroachment in Chitral bazar.
it is my hope that the dc chitral would be given a free hand to achieve the objectives of the campaign. he has already shown writ of govt by sealing the hotel owned by mna chitral for poor hygiene. now let’s see what action the administration takes to retrieve public land like road from occupation of people holding important posts including district nazim who is accused of encroaching a portion of road in jhugure.
Good move by district administration.
The step taken by DC chitral against the old bazar is totally vital decision. Whatever, the width of the road of old bazar but the destruction made a trading and economical collapes for a district. The old bazar is a source of small business for poor people of the chitral and also source of income poor labour. The district remain cut off for many month from the rest of the country. Their are many other works in the district like electricity , transportation, road problems for the people. So DC CHITRAL you should solve them rather to creat a new problem for the people after earth quake and flesh flood.