KARACHI, Oct 19: A report submitted to the Sindh agriculture minister recommends that to save the New Sabzi Mandi on the Super Highway from becoming a ‘mini-Bajaur and Waziristan’ and a safe haven for criminals and outlaws, it’s high time to seek the assistance of the Pakistan Rangers and the home department for launching a clean-up operation.

An officer-bearer in the administration of the New Sabzi Mandi has presented this report to Sindh Agriculture Minister Syed Ali Nawaz Shah.

The report takes stock of the situation created after illegal encroachment of shops, unauthorised occupation and illegal possession of open spaces in the New Sabzi Mandi by ‘outsiders,’ who enjoy cover of criminals and outlaws due to, what the report calls, the negligence of the Market Committee of the New Sabzi Mandi.

In his report, the in-charge of the gate recovery office, Mubarak Rehmani Baloch, has attached a comprehensive list of shops and open spaces which have been forcibly occupied by the ‘outsiders,’ while the real owners are struggling to get back the possession of their shops and sheds.

These people have also been issued threats of dire consequences if they didn’t sell their shops to these criminal elements.

The list contains details of plot numbers occupied in potato, onion, vegetable and fruit sections of the New Sabzi Mandi.

It is pointed out that in the past, the encroachers’ group, which is operating like a mafia in the Mandi, had abolished the system of gate recovery, which resulted in huge financial losses to the Market Committee.

The report says there is a camp of the Pakistan Rangers at the Sabzi Mandi, but they are unable to intervene and are helpless because they cannot act without formal orders from their high-ups.

Mr Baloch also states in the report that open spaces reserved for fire station, parking lots and other basic amenities had also been demarcated.

Earlier, in a presentation to the secretary of agriculture, the All Vegetable Tajir Biradri Alliance had demanded the cancellation of all fake allotments made in violation of the approved plan of the Mandi. The chief secretary had ordered the cancellation of all such allotments but no action has been taken so far.

When another stakeholder, the Malir Wholesale Fruit Merchants & Growers Association’s president Mohammad Javed’s comments were sought on the contents of the report, he said that if the agriculture minister personally visited the New Sabzi Mandi, he could asses the problems of the growers as he himself belonged to a growers’ family.

Mr Javed said that he himself had drawn the attention of the agriculture department and the chief minister and other authorities concerned towards what he termed the violation of the master plan, rules and regulations, corruption and incompetence on the part of the market committee.

He said that due to the incompetence of the market committee, the New Sabzi Mandi, which was developed with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank as a model market, had been defaced and was littered with garbage.

He said if the judgment given by the Sindh Ombudsman on June 24, 2000 was implemented in its true spirit, not only the encroachments would be removed, but also the corruption would be eliminated from the market committee.

He said that seven years had passed since the shifting of the Sabzi Mandi from the University Road to its new location, but the place continued to be deprived of basic amenities of water, electricity meters, gas and carpeting of roads, for which the ADP had provided Rs304 million.

He said the stakeholders were being left to face hardships and were even meeting their water demand by purchasing it from the private tankers.