As the last week of Ramadan ul Mubarak is going on and the Eid is coming near and near, the rush of the people in all the markets eventually increased manifolds, but the encroachment in bazaars also increased due to which people especially ladies and children are facing many problems in their Eid shopping.
Almost every market in big cities of the country is almost full of encroachments. The shopkeepers allow kiosks and pushcarts to set their business outside their shops and in return they take money on a daily basis from the kiosks owners. The encroachments cover all the places reserved for parking, footpaths made for pedestrians and even entry points of each market.
But the main question arises that where are the public service departments that are at the helm of all affairs and responsible for the removal of these encroachments. But allegedly they take heavy bribes from each and every encroacher. The bribe money is divided from top to bottom as each gets his share according to his post.
Sometimes once in a week or so, they also hold so-called operations against the encroachments and confiscate some of the pushcarts just to show their performance to their big bosses or media but from very next day the encroachments are reestablished in the same place.
A new kind of encroachment that is developing fast in the country is the setting up of business on the sides of main roads. Especially the mushroom growth of auto workshops in which they are running their setup on the shoulders of main roads of many cities, which not only create hurdles in the smooth flow of traffic but also become a security risk for the whole area.
The transports also add to the encroachments as they park their taxis and wagons etc on the both sides of the roads to load or offload commuters. As the roads are already becoming narrow due to a lot of kiosks and pushcarts and illegal parking of the transport has swelled the suffering of the common man who comes for shopping there.
The local and district administration of each city has become ineffective to control the menace of the encroachment. The reasons of failure of these municipal offices and other civic institutions against the encroachments is either mainly corrupt people are sitting in these departments and they take money for closing their eyes towards encroachments or these encroachers have some political links as when any operation is conducted against them in any city , the local MNA or MPA’s recommendation comes to the officers who are in-charge of these anti encroachment drives and they have to leave the encroachers without taking any legal action against them.
The increase of encroachments in the country is going so fast without any check and balance as they occupy each and every inch in the commercial areas, that the provincial governments would have to legislate to control these encroachments on a large scale throughout the country.
Now through legislation the government should announce that for starting any business, the presence of shops should be a must. If someone cannot arrange a shop, he should not be allowed to start the business, anywhere in the country.
In this connection the media should also play its role to impart training of the people against encroachments through their public service messages.
But the main character in this regard is on the shoulders of different chambers of commerce and other trader’s organizations, who can tell their members not to allow the encroachments outside their business setups for little personal interest but at the same time they are losing big business due to these encroachments.