Illegal houses along the banks of Soan River

[hasham.naq (Hasham Naqvi)]

The recent monsoon rains have caused a flood-like situation in areas alongside the Soan River due to which, the houses near the Sharoon Colony were evacuated. The commissioner has also ordered the revenue dept to conduct a survey to identify the illegal houses constructed alongside the Soan River and in the Sharoon Colony, so that an anti-encroachment plan can be formulated.

I wanted to post this thread to tell all you folks living in the area to make the arrangements in advance as the govt is going to come hard on this issue – especially after what happened in Karachi. Secondly, I wanted to ask how bad is it in these areas?

[Anonymous_122deb40f5a78224d5739e736cde50dd (Raja Waqas)]

Brother your concerns are so true ,

I also just want to say i haven't seen any parks , playgrounds in these socities (jonnah garden ) , soan garden , pwd ,korang , pakistan , and all adjacent societies ,

Sari zameen harap karli ha inhu (including nalay aswell) ne even there is no qabristan in that area , these societies handlers have made a new Raja Bazar in this area and in coming years there is whole lot of mess waiting around those societies .

[hasham.naq (Hasham Naqvi)]

Brother Waqas, I understand your point. I also have great grievances against the lacking public utilities like parks, graveyards, mosques and schools etc in housing societies they change the layout plan after getting the required approvals and convert the utility plots to residential ones – to make a profit. However, the government’s recently activity seems to be hounding these cases, so let’s hope something good will come out of this.

As for the river site, I saw it in DAWN today that the Revenue Dept has razed four buildings alongside the Soan River on Friday – as part of their anti-encroachment operation. Apparently, the river’s right of way is 300 to 350 metres, but illegal units have encroached it beyond the said limit – causing flooding in local areas after rain and resulted in loss of lives and property damage.

It is sad to see how the town planning in our country has been shamefully neglected. The concrete mushrooming of the city is wreaking havoc in every possible way – yet the problem only seems to grow! Still, if the encroachment operation is conducted thoroughly, at least the neighbourhood around the Soan River will not turn into another ‘Raja Bazaar’.