RAWALPINDI: Commissioner Rawalpindi Division Liaquat Ali Chattha has directed the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) to conduct a survey and register cases against those owners of the plazas who have set up shops at the parking lots.

The commissioner gave the instructions while reviewing the performance of the RMC at a meeting here on Friday.

RMC Chief Officer Chaudhry Arshad Hussain gave a briefing to the commissioner regarding the administrative affairs of the civic body.

On this occasion, Mr Chattha said all resources would be used to solve the problems of the residents. He said although the operation conducted by the RMC to end the encroachments in Rawalpindi city was successful, there was still a lot of work to be done.

He said there were reports of illegal construction in the city areas and that the provincial government had been asked to put an end to it without any negligence.

He said the civic body should activate the anti-encroachment squad and remove all the encroachments from the roads of the city for the smooth flow of traffic on the garrison city roads.

He asked the RMC officials to conduct a survey of the city to identify the commercial plazas that had converted basements into shops instead of parking.

Due to encroachments and illegal parking, a rush situation is created and the commuters have to face long traffic jams on main roads in the city.

It may be mentioned here that new building laws were adopted by the RMC in 2019, but it failed to implement them. Under the new by-laws, a committee was to be formed to check the building violations and issue a non-objection certificate (NOC) to the building owner to get the electricity, gas and water connections from the utility services departments.

Before that, there was no requirement to get NOC from the RMC to get the facility, and in the new building by-laws, it was mandatory to stop illegal construction in the area.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2023