RAHIM YAR KHAN: The municipal committee (MC) sealed more than 70 shops after removing the name boards and ramps in the School Bazaar late on Friday.

A team, led by Additional Deputy Commissioner General (ADCG)/Administrator Irfan Anwar, along with Assistant Commissioner Waqas Zafar, Chief Officer Rana Mehmood Ahmed and a large number of MC staff, equipped with excavators, tractor-trolleys and small sanitary vehicles, executed the operation.

The team first sealed the shop of former vice MC chairman Abdul Latif Bhatti, who is also executive body member of the local chamber and deputy chief warden at District Civil Defence.

According to independent sources, the conflict between theMC and 70 shopkeepers of School Bazaar over the ownership of shops had persisted for many years. On this issue, the MC administration many times tried to seal or demolish these shops, but shopkeepers always used political influence. Almost 15 years ago, the shopkeepers agreed to pay the rent of these shops to the MC in a meeting involving political figures, administration, MC staff and shopkeepers and this agreement was implemente d.

However, for the last 10 years, the shopkeepers stopped paying the rent for these shops and claimed ownership. The MC administration was deprived of a significant amount of rent collected from these shops.

On Friday night, according to some eyewitness shopkeepers, Zilai Anjuman Taajran (ZAT) leaders Atif Ghaffar and Chaudhry Javed Arshad were at the scene to support the MCadministration.

There are two parallel trader organisations, ZAT and City Anjuman Taajran (CAT), in Rahim Yar Khan, and most shopkeepers in School Bazaar were affiliated with CAT.

However, ZAT President Abdul Roauf Mukhtar said shopkeepers had agreed to follow MC`s orders to restore the rent, but the MC administration wanted it to be in written form.

Mr Mukhtar condemned MC administration`s highhandedness as the staff broke the shops and other infrastructure. He said that traders would meet with the district administration and later announce their strategy.

On the other hand, CAT President Azman Asghar Chaudhry told Dawn that, according to a letter issued on March 1, 2016, by Additional District Collector Shozab Saeed, revenue records showed the shop land belonged to Shamlaat Deh(included villages) and that the MC lacked record to claim the land ownership.

The letter mentioned that the MC admitted that the shops were constructed by the shopkeepers, but it was clear that the MC staff received the rent from the shopkeepers as encroachments. Now, for a long period, the encroachment rent was not being received, and the ownership rights were converted to shopkeepers. This order was also sent to the secretary of colony, Board of Revenue.

The operation continued for more than four hours, and the MC staff was still present after closing the entrance to School Bazaar. The shopkeepers were very annoyed not only with the MC administration but also with their trader organisations.

A senior PML-N leader said that neither the MC had a rightful claim in this matter nor were the shopkeepers the real owners of these shops. The matter ofthese prime location shops was under review by the Board of Revenue, so both sides should wait for the final decision, he said.

ADCG Anwar said that more than 70 shopkeepers of School Bazaar were defaulters of the MC, owing Rs140 million. They had not been paying rent for the last 14 years. He added that the MC had previously intimated these shopkeepers to pay the rent arrears or face the sealing of their shops.

The ADCG stated that, in line with the vision of CM Punjab Maryam Nawaz, the government of Punjab had issued clear instructions to retrieve all properties owned by government departments from illegal occupiers and ensure 100pc recovery of rents. He urged all defaulter shopkeepers to clear their arrears at the MC office so that citizens could benefit from improved municipal facilities.