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emergency 'New
Traffic Warden System to construction Mood Street
The two-day heavy rains in the city brings to light some key problems in such an event By Suhail Akhter Heavy rains lashing the metropolitan last week left serious damages in its wake and apart from the damages that resulted from natural threats, there are some man-made threats which surfaced during the rains which can be tackled with some planning. The two-day long rains paralysed routine life in the city and left around 20 to 25 thousand people homeless (according to data of NGOs), hungry for days who are being fed through langar distributed by devotees at different shrines of saints. "Very few people came to distribute langar so many people remained hungry during the two days of rains," said Muhammad Ramzan, an official of Auqaf Department appointed at Data Darbar. He said Data Darbar alone provides food to ten to 12 thousand people of the city daily whereas Bibi Pakdaman and others shrines cater to the needs of the deprived people as well. But the real problem is wastage of food in the absence of proper storage facilities at the shrines. This food can be provided to the homeless people in a better way if the shrines are provided with proper storage facilities. It merits a mention that an NGO Alamgir Trust is working on these lines. The volunteers collect leftover food from hotels and marriage halls, pack them in boxes and distribute them in slums and among the poor. "We can follow this procedure but we need some help from the NGOs working for the elimination of poverty to make this experience a success," says Abid Ahmed, another Auqaf Department official. Aside from food, shelter is another problem confronted by homeless people and this situation worsens in incessant rains. Increase in poverty has multiplied slums and number of destitute people in the city but little serious effort has been made to provide them shelter. Statistics also show increase in poverty in the country in recent years. Homeless people fill in the green belts in the city. They gravitate towards trees and near the power installations as well which is a cause for concern. "In rains you are exposed to a number of threats. You are not even safe in your car as trees along the road and power installations pose a serious threat to your life whereas in other parts of Asia, special arrangements are made during rains to counter crisis. Our departments keep on planning but every disaster exposes their efficiency," said Mobeen who has returned from Sri Lanka. Small shops which are built in a makeshift manner without taking into account the necessary safety measures,. need to be properly insulated. Probably the authorities neeed to look into it. "A boy working at a photostat shop was electrocuted and died on the spot recently. Many such incidents have been reported in the city. All departments are responsible for the death of the boy and these are man-made disasters which can be avoided," says Syed Tasawwar Hussain of Wapda City Division. The official says the kiosks can be made safe for shopkeepers and clients by taking some extra care, especially in rains. Many kiosks of PCOs, photostat and small eatery outlets near commercial centres have cropped up. The weak structures of the shops pose danger to the occupants. NGOs and government should coordinate efforts to provide maximum facilities to such destitute people in harsh weather conditions. Another man-made problem is choking of nullahs in the city. When the nullah overflows it leaves thick mud and dirty water in low-lying areas. The main problem is throwing of plastic bags and garbage into covered nullahs which can't be cleaned, hence overflow in rainy season, said Munir Mukhtar, a Wasa official at Outfall Road office. The authorities are negligent in many ways as well. There are ten nullahs in different parts of the city and on some covered nullah illegal markets have been constructed which hamper the smooth cleaning of the nullahs and create problems in rainy days. It is our collective responsibility to watch throwing of garbage into nullahs to ensure safety to human beings and buildings. There are so many food streets and eatery outlets but the leftover meal, bread and rice are thrown into drains due to lack of awareness among the people. This huge amount of food can be reused for the poor and homeless people in rainy days with little management, said an academic, Rashid Khan. "Sociologists, teachers and volunteers can be instrumental in creating awareness among the masses in this regard so that people who have no means can be fed in this natural catastrophe. But we have little concern for the deprived people in such situations. We do worry about our dear ones but the poor are ignored whereas new management skills can be used to solve this problem," he said.
'New
Traffic Warden System to An interview with Senior
Superintendent of Police (SSP) Waseem Ahmed Khan, the chief traffic officer of
Lahore By Aoun Sahi and Shahzada Irfan Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Waseem Ahmed Khan is the chief traffic officer of Lahore. With the city expanding day by day and thousands of new vehicles adding to those already present on roads, his task is becoming tougher day by day. Determined against all odds to streamline city's traffic, Waseem talks to The News on Sunday at length about the problems faced in traffic management, issues that need to be addressed urgently and the plans the government wants to implement in the near future. Excerpts of the interview follow: The News on Sunday: What are the foremost reasons that you think have led to the aggravation of Lahore's traffic system? Waseem Ahmed Khan: The reasons are many but to start with, I would say that the existing infrastructure including roads, underpasses, overhead bridges, service lanes, cross junctions and so on, is too little to accommodate the ever-growing number of vehicles. It's not a lame excuse as some critics would say; I can quote relevant figures to prove this. For example, around 1.2 million motorised and non-motorised vehicles come on roads of Lahore every day as compared to 1.5 million vehicles plying the roads of Karachi. Though the number is greater by 0.3 million for Karachi, there is no comparison between the lengths of roads available in the two cities. You will be amazed to know that Karachi has 5,600 kilometres of road length to accommodate its traffic as compared to mere 370 kilometres available in Lahore. TNS: How can this problem be addressed? Is the government willing to spend enough on infrastructure? WAK: The very fact that the traffic is moving on the city roads shows that we are managing it properly despite several handicaps. What we want to ensure is that there are no periodic traffic jams as well. For this, it is essential to have better infrastructure. We need wider roads, overhead bridges, underpasses and so on. Karachi has faced all the problems in the past that we are experiencing in Lahore nowadays. The situation improved there only and only when road infrastructure was improved and developed according to the city's needs. The government of Punjab has taken many initiatives that will help improve the situation a lot. Several underpasses are there with many more in pipeline. Similarly, the Ring Road being laid across the city will be of great help to us in diverting extra traffic load. The city district government Lahore with help of provincial government has also decided to set up a mass transit system in the city. If this project gets through, it will not be less than a blessing for commuters. TNS: The setting up of infrastructure takes time. Can the citizens be left to wait for the day when these projects are completed? WAK: No, I don't mean that. We can definitely improve the situation but for this we need cooperation from the public. I feel sorry to say that a city as big as Lahore does not have proper signage. Cities all over the world have signs placed properly so that commuters have a clear sense of direction in which they are moving. Secondly, I would suggest that school-going children must have the option to travel to schools on buses. You will be surprised to know that not less than 80,000 cars come out everyday in the morning to drop children to schools. The same cars come once again in the afternoon to pick these children from schools and drop them home. We can well imagine how big a mess is created by these vehicles. I would suggest that parents should press school administrations to start bus service for children. Any school charging fees around Rs 2,000 per month can easily afford bus service. I have talked to the principal of Aitchison College, Lahore, who has shown his willingness to provide bus service for all students. I hope other schools and colleges will follow suit. Another suggestion that I have is that the fine money for violating traffic laws should be enhanced manifold. The fines being imposed currently are too small to work as a deterrent for commuters in the habit of violating traffic laws. TNS: Its a common public perception that traffic police hardly stops the affluent and vents its anger on the poor, mostly the bikers. Why is it so? WAK: I agree with you. I have never supported this, but this attitude is everywhere, in every field. We as a nation have seen the VIP culture prosper in our country. We give exemptions to certain people but are tough with others. The poor traffic constable standing on the road for long endless hours is not clear about who to check and who to let go. Though I have given them strict orders not to discriminate against anyone, many of them lack the courage to stop luxurious cars. The way influential people behave with them is no secret. Here I feel glad to inform you that the Chief Minister Punjab has announced to start Traffic Warden System at a cost of Rs 3 billion. Under this system, graduates and post graduates have been recruited in the department to monitor the city's traffic flow. They will be trained on modern lines and given more powers but at the same time directed to deal with people with respect. Besides, members of this force will always be on the move and have full backing of the government. This will give them the courage to check and fine anybody for violating traffic laws, however wealthy and influential he is. In short, this system will strike at the roots of the age-old VIP culture. TNS: In this case, what will become of the traffic policemen already employed by the department? Will they be able to work hand in hand with the graduate workforce? WAK: The department will hold on-job trainings for the already employed ones. Once they complete their training, they will be transferred to their home districts. This will be done to ensure that an overwhelmingly large proportion of the city's traffic police staff comprises of the people recruited under the Traffic Warden System. This system will be launched in few months. Citizens must get ready for change and prepare themselves mentally for a system where law will be equally strict for all. TNS: Do you have any message for the public in particular? WAK: Yes, I have a lot to say. But what I want to convey them first of all is that they should try to put themselves in the shoes of the poor traffic constable who stands there in the middle of the road for the whole day. The poor man has to even stand under the sun in extreme temperatures that are sometimes as high as 50°C. People must realise that the poor constable is also a human being and must be dealt with in a proper way. Secondly, I would request that people must respect law. Abiding by petty laws is a must for nation's willingness to excel. Here I would like to cite the example of New York which had become a centre of heinous crimes in early 20th century. When its new mayor assumed office in 1915, he called the city police chief and asked him to ensure that people start obeying petty laws. The purpose behind passing these orders was that once people see petty laws enforced, they automatically get a message that violation of stricter laws will bring bigger problems for them. The scheme worked out and the law and order situation in New York increased considerably within no time. I am sure if people start obeying traffic laws, they will definitely show respect for law in general. TNS: Have public awareness schemes launched by the traffic police ever achieved the desired results? WAK: Yes, they have proved very useful. We have held countless lectures over the years for citizens to familiarise them with traffic laws. It's strange that most of the citizens do not know what different traffic signs mean. It was nothing less than an achievement for us to familiarise thousands of people with traffic signs and rules. I would like to inform you that we have taken our awareness campaign a step further. Now we have a traffic education van that we take to different schools and colleges in the city. This way, the senior officials of the city's traffic department get a chance to directly interact with students in educational institutions and apprise them of their responsibilities as civilians. During this exercise, I have observed that students listen to these lectures with interest. I am sure these students will carry the message wherever they go and prove to be responsible and law-abiding citizens in times to come. The plaza problem In Shah Alam Market, business
goes on in buildings which were sealed for being dangerous. This poses a
challenge to the city government By Ahsan Zia The breaking of official seals of the six plazas declared dangerous by the city government by some influential traders, shortly after the Lodhi Arcade on Shah Alam Road crumbled, clearly indicates a gap between the city government's rhetoric and action. City Nazim Mian Amir Mehmood seems to have been at pains to prove to the people and the government that he is trying his level best to put a strategy into practice that would avert such disasters in future. People doubt if this is going to be effective; the powerful 'plaza mafia' demands measures much more stringent than tinkering here and there. Muhammad Amjad, a resident of Rang Mahal, says, "We have not seen even a brief lull in activities of land-grabbers in Shah Alam Market after the city government declared over 1,000 buildings in violation of the building bylaws. These buildings also include six plazas that were declared dangerous by the city government. These are: Lodhi Arcade, Ali Plaza, Aslam Gill Plaza, Jeddah Tower and Aslam Toys Plaza. Business is going on in these plazas." "Not only do the owners continue to construct commercial plazas on a massive scale in clear violation of the building codes of the Lahore Development Authority in Shah Alam Market, they are also making illegal basements and plazas taller than regulations allow, putting the lives of shopkeepers as well as the dwellers at risk." "It seems that powerful and well-connected mafia of developers of illegal buildings has now succeeded in prevailing over even the city government headed by the district Nazim Mian Amir Mehmood," says a shopkeeper of Shah Alam, Nawaz Abid. "Even shops located in the ground and 1st floor of the collapsed Lodhi Arcade have re-opened," he says. He alleges that in order to make easy money, some members of the traders' wing of the ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League (Q), are patronising the nexus that exists between town planning, building and coordination departments, LDA officials and plaza owners. A member of the Anjuman-i-Tajiran Shah Alam Market, on condition of anonymity, says that the 'plaza mafia' has become so daring that an influential member of traders' wing of the ruling party, in a meeting held a couple of days back, warned the City Nazim that if the government does not cease to act against illegal plazas located in Shah Alam Market, the traders wing would withdraw its support for it. The Lahore Development Authority has not permitted anyone to construct a multi-storey plaza during the last 20 years. The D-point car parking plaza is an exception. The plaza was built by the LDA itself. Parking problems had badly affected business at the market, and things has got quite bad before this project was launched in 1992. Anjuman-i-Tajiran D-point plaza president Shehzada Babar Malik tells TNS that there is a general perception that D-point plaza has played a pivotal role in lessening the parking problems of this business hub of the city. Shah Alam market is such a congested area that sometimes even pedestrians find it hard to walk through the area easily. "Controversies, litigations and frequent suspension of work are what the D-point parking plaza, the only multi-storey commercial building in the entire locality of the Walled City that fulfills the LDA's building bylaws, has witnessed during its 14-year history," he says Babar keeps on saying, "Designed in the shape of the D, the eight-storey D-point car parking plaza was constructed by LDA at a cost of around Rs. 170 million in a span of over nine years. The plaza, which can accommodate 500 cars and 1,000 motorcycles at a time, has three basements." D-point plaza is standing on a foundation of heavy steel, attached with columns of concrete that run 250 feet deep in the earth .The plaza can survive an earthquake at an intensity of 8 point on the Ritcher scale. "Built basically with a view to resolve persistent parking problems, especially in the congested stretch from Shah Alam Chowk to Rang Mahal, the construction of the D-point plaza was initiated with the help of the private sector in 1992 in the era of former Chief Minister Punjab Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo. Adnan Mufti was the first private contractor who succeeded in getting the contract for construction of the plaza on a piece of land where once there was Rang Mahal police kiosk and 61 shops, all privately owned." Mirza Hamid Bashir, secretary general Anjuman-i-Tajiran D-Plaza, says that a tripartite agreement was signed among the LDA, Tepa and the 61 shopkeepers who had their shops at the site where the plaza was to be built. Work on the plaza was stalled several times as politicians, contractors and local traders locked horns with one another. The contractor started booking as many as 450 shops to be built in the plaza in violation of the actual contract, which allowed construction of only 61 shops. Consequently, the structure was declared illegal by the LDA. Moreover, some technical flaws in the structure were also pointed out by the experts." He says the next nine years proved very difficult for the shopkeepers as well as the dwellers of the area, because five traders passed away. The residents were beset with a host of parking and traffic problems when LDA constructed temporary shops for the 61 shopkeepers on the main road, which blocked half the road in front of the plaza. Eventually in July 1998, the incomplete structure was razed to the ground by the LDA on the directives of the then Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif .It resulted in a loss of Rs. 670 million, because by that time many traders had already bought shops in the plaza .Apart from this, the Rs. 35 million spent on construction of the plaza also went down the drain. Many shopkeepers had invested their life's savings when they bought shops in the plaza. They moved the court and the legal battle began. He continues to say, "The 61 shopkeepers who were promised shops on the ground floor of the plaza were also displaced. Later on they were given temporary shops to do business until the construction of plaza." "The LDA took the responsibility of reconstructing the plaza and finished the construction work in the next two years. The plaza was restored as a car parking plaza. However, it was not opened to the public even after one year of its completion. In those days heavy rains hit the city due to which the three basements of the plaza were filled with rain water. Experts warned that the the water, which could seep into the ground and cause irreparable damage to the steel foundation, must be removed. The stagnant rainy water could even cause cracks in the structure." "The traders had held a number of meetings with LDA authorities and other government officials to get their genuine grievances resolved. The last meeting before the final handing over of the shops to the traders was held with the LDA officials on June 2, 2001, chaired by the governor. It was finally decided that the shops would soon be handed over to the 61 shopkeepers on lease. The LDA finalised terms and conditions of the lease with the shopkeepers and handed over the shops to them." Tariq Mehmood, an LDA official, says that as per the newly amended LDA building bylaws, a multi-storey building higher than 70 feet can only be constructed in an area of more than one kanal, a 60-feet plaza is allowed to be constructed on a total area of 10 marlas, whereas a 40-feet building can be built on five marlas. The bylaws do not allow construction of basements for commercial activity. He says the government is making strenuous efforts to deal with land grabbers in Shah Alam. "We have received some complaints regarding reopening of shops in dangerous buildings, upon which we are taking action against them. Rest assured, we will ensure observance of building laws in the area".
Weather-beaten breed Give the traffic policeman his due... By Farah Zia I am really truly amazed by the efficiency, sincerity and plain brilliance of Lahore's traffic police. Now don't get me wrong. It's a statement of fact with the tongue at a necessary distance from the cheek. Believe it or not, my admiration for the traffic police has grown over days, months and now years. I say amazed because I honestly don't understand why they do what they do in a place where no one else does what he/she is supposed to do. What is the motivation for the constable to be standing where one sees him in the morning and then again in the afternoon when twenty minutes on the road in the comfort of one's own transport are enough to wreck nerves (How long are the duty hours by the way and what about the salary?) And what a weather-beaten breed are they! In the ten-yearly non-stop-rain the city saw last week I spotted many undeterred policemen holding umbrellas, wearing raincoats and making sense of the mad rush around. With people's civic sense at the level where it is, they are indeed doing a great job. And a thankless one at that. Because, by and large, we castigate them and think they are in the wrong when most of the time it is us and not them. I see people trying to project themselves as an exception to the rule, to the law. Lawyers, journalists, civil servants, the list is endless. I am sure no one thinks for a moment that a broken number-plate, a missing light, a signal violated is a breach of law and the traffic police is only doing his job. Let's give him credit for this! The only reason why I felt this need to write this adulatory piece is because I am afraid the traffic police too are beginning to lose the sense of right and wrong. One of them came up to me on a signal where I had stopped a little before the light turned red and refrained me from doing so "because the fast vehicle on the back might hit you since no one likes to stop when the light turns yellow or even red." What I enjoy most is the frantic activity the traffic police indulges in once there's a VIP movement. It's just that I end up sympathising and empathising with them -- mostly because they become the recipients of all the choicest abuses that are the rightful preserve of the VIPs. *************** While on the subject of VIPs, and before someone thought I had totally given up hope on the city's road-users, in Gulberg's Main Boulevard on a Saturday evening some months ago, something else happened to restore my faith on that count. Traffic was stopped on the crossing because a very very VIP -- some said it was the prime minister -- had to pass. The wait was long enough for people to hear the siren of an ambulance, a 1122, in their midst. I saw people get out of their cars and do something about it. They went, no ran, madly to ask the policemen to clear the traffic for the ambulance to pass. But it was too thick and cluttered. The policemen could not open the barriers under instructions. The people, the road users I mean, even tried to lift the ambulance but the median was too big and the ambulance too heavy. A motorcyclist took the opportunity to film the whole episode on his handicam. As I try to recall, the worried and helpless look on people's faces lifts my spirits somehow. **************** Unusual as it may sound but I still manage to find some good things happening on the roads where I end up spending a lot of time -- including the good-looking bus stops with seats and all. One hopes, it's feel-good-mood piece remember, the bus stop trend would catch up throughout the city, suburban localities included.
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