LAHORE: The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and the Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore (MCL) have miserably failed to remove encroachments and clear various major city roads and markets, especially -Madina Road (Township) and Lower Mall (Aiwan-i-Adl Road ) -of obstacles, causing a great inconvenience to the public at large as well as serious civic issues, including traffic congestion, dust and noise pollution, parking etc.

The situation has worsened as no one from the MCL, district administration and the LDA seems ready to launch a major operation to clear these roads of allsorts of encroachments due to [probable] fear keeping in view some tragic incidents that happened during various operations in the past, Dawn has learnt.

`Madina Road, perhaps is a very critical point in terms of taking any step in the public interest, as no one dared visit this areaafter February 2014, the time when a major anti-encroachment operation had been launched and it finally turned into a headone religious/sectarian fight among the government teams, shopkeepers and clerics due to falling of a street-gate inscribed with the Quranic verses,` said Ikram, a resident of township street linking to Madina Road.

He termed the road a most dangerous among all city roads of Lahore, as the shopkeepers foiled all bids of the government during various anti-encroachment operations.

`The operations, especially the one conducted in February 2014, led to scuffles among the officials and the shopkeepers, loss of property, injuries to people and giving rise to religious and sectarian issues, he added.

Ashraf, another resident, said the February 2014 action also triggered hate, leading to day-long protest and setting various trucks, machinery etc, brought there by the government team for operation, on fire.

`The officials had also fled reportedly from the scene after the protesters came in front of them to thrash them,` he recalled.

He said the encroachers have shrunk the road to half of its total width, making the people unable to even move on foot.According to him, since no one dared to even launch a minor clean-up operation on this road after 2014, the current situation has become terrible for motorists, shoppers and pedestrians.

`It seems the government (LDA teams) has excluded this road from the list of critical areas in terms of encroachment/hurdles,` he said.

On the other hand, constant traffic jams at Lower Mall (Aiwan-i-Adl /Civil Secretariat to Kutchery/DC office chowk) due to a huge parking lot made by the lawyers allegedly has been affecting the public at large badly.

`Passing through the area in front of Aiwan-i-Adal (200 to 300 meters stretch after passing Civil Secretariat) is considered to be an uphill task,` Aslam, a resident of nearby locality, told this reporter.

Talking to Dawn, MCL`s Chief Officer Ali Abbas Bukhari admitted the facts, stating that the motorists have been facing a great dealofinconvenience due toillegalparking lot developed by lawyers in front of Aiwan-iAdl.

`Not only the motorists, the public offices including the commissioner office (now shifted to jail road) too had issues with this parking lot,` he added. He pledged to discuss the issue with the lawyers in a bid toend this parkinglot.

`The Lahore Parking Company has also proposed two parking plazas near this road,` he said, adding that the parking lot developed by the lawyers should be handed over to the LPC for better management.

When contacted, Lahore Commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa, who also holdscharge of the office of LDA director general, said a major anti-encroachment operation on all major and small roads would be launched after Eid holidays. `We are very conscious about this issue, as it affects the public directly. Therefore, we have planned a major operation across Lahore soon after Eid,` he added.