BAHAWALPUR: Commissioner Musarrat Jabeen says that the administration will launch the second phase of the anti-encroachment operation from April 7 in a number of city localities after completion of the first phase in most areas in February.

Speaking toDawnon Friday, Ms Jabeen, who is also the administrator of metropolitan corporation, said the city suburbs and all other tehsil headquarters and main towns would be cleared of the all sorts of encroachments, illegal structures, hoardings, gates, unauthorised garages, servant quarters, boundary walls, ramps and slopes, water pumps in addition to grassy plots creating hindrances in the smooth flow of vehicular traffic on the roads.

She said that to launch the second phase of crackdown on encroachers, Deputy Commissioner Dr Farhan Farooq had coordinated with the metropolitan corporation, city tehsil administration, DPO Asad Sarfraz Khan, district officers of civil defence, Rescue Service 1122, Bahawalpur and other related government departments and agencies to maintain law and order. She added that the district administration had also sought cooperation of mosques’ prayer leaders to make announcements to inform residents and encroachers about the action.

She said the people through announcements had also been warned to demolish voluntarily the encroachments and illegal structures themselves; otherwise, the administration would not be responsible for their damages.

Ms Jabeen identified the localities of Shahdra Basti, Kausar Colony, Gulberg Road , Bhutta Colonies No. 1, 2 and 3, Habib Colony, Cheema Town, Rehmat Colony and others areas for the second phase.

It may be recalled that during the first phase, thousands of encroachments in front of houses besides illegal shops and walls were demolished with the help of heavy machinery.

LODHRAN: Lodhran topped first position in the province among the districts of group 3 in Punjab in its performance indicators during the month of March.

According to an official handout, Lodhran Deputy Commissioner Dr Lubna Nazir said that in group 3, there were 14 districts, from which, on the basis of quarterly performance during March, Lodhran was adjudged first. In order to assess the performance ,the districts were divided into groups in accordance with their population and volume.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2025