RAWALPINDI, April 14: Rawal Town Municipal Administration (RTMA) has started survey of old and dilapidated buildings.

An RTMA official told Dawn that the Rawal Town Administrator had formed two teams for 46 union councils, and these teams would submit their report within a week.

He said that the RTMA had a list of 250 dangerous buildings but the administrator wanted to update the figure. He said that after the survey, the RTMA would issue evacuation notices to the occupants.

He said the collapse of an old building in Gujranwala on Friday had awoken the civic body to conduct this exercise to avoid repeat of such incident in its areas. He said that the RTMA was also considering seeking help from police to forcefully evacuate the dangerous buildings.

Some other officials said in every monsoon season, the RTMA served notices on the inhabitants of dangerous building but people ignored them for simple justification that they did not have any other option but to live there.

The residents were of the view that it was a routine and useless exercise as the civic body just wanted to save its face in case of any mishap. “People have been living in old and dilapidated buildings for the last 50 or 60 years as they have no other option but to shift,” said Mohammad Nadeem, a resident of Bazaar Talwaran.

He said that the low income people lived in these building. The government has launched so many housing schemes for low income people in other parts of the province but ignored Pindiittes.

“We will conduct survey of the old and dilapidated buildings in the city and after getting the list, we start issuing the evacuation notices to the residents,” said Saif Anwar Jappa, Rawal Town Administrator, while talking to Dawn.

“There are 250 dangerous buildings in the city. We want an updated figure to save the lives of the people. If these buildings are not renovated or vacated, they could collapse in heavy rains or earthquake and also affect nearby areas,” he said.

Replying to question, he said the civic body could not provide any alternative housing facility to the residents of dangerous building.

He, however, agreed to write a letter to the provincial government to seek financial assistance for the affected people, he said.

When contacted, PML-N MPA from PP-11 Ziaullah Shah said that the provincial government had launched Jinnah Abadi and Ashiana Housing Schemes for homeless people and plots and houses would be given to the residents of the specific areas where these schemes situated.

“For the residents of dangerous building, the government had no policy as mostly people lived in private properties or Evacuee Trust Property buildings. It will better for them to shift their houses to avoid any untoward incident,” he said.