ISLAMABAD - The stall-holders at the weekly bazaars in the capital have been directed to revert to their actually allotted trades instead of trades of their choice (if any), to avoid action against them.
The authorities moved after massive irregularities surfaced in the ‘change of trade’ by the stall-holders. The officials at the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) in a letter to all the chief inspectors, inspectors and supervisors of the weekly bazaars of the MCI have directed to ensure immediate compliance in their respective jurisdictions by physically limiting all the stall-holders to their actually allotted trades, especially those who were primarily allotted such stalls for some other trade and currently they are running trade of their own choice. The letter said that the ‘change of trade’ was illegal, violation of rules and sheer violation of the court orders in this regard. In an appeal titled “Junaid Nawaz Vs. Municipal Corporation Islamabad (MCI) dated 20 September 2021 in the court of Additional District and Session Judge-VII Islamabad West and the decision announced on 24 September 2021, Assistant Director (Bazaars) DMA had assured the honourable court for compliance of the trades in letter and spirit that there would no more be a violation of trade at the weekly bazaars. The AD Bazaars has asked the concerned officials to submit a compliance report of the orders within one week time with pictorial evidence and a list of such cases that have been reverted to actual trades.
CDA reviews progress on Islamabad Metro Bus project
Chairman CDA Amer Ali Ahmed, in a meeting attended by CDA officers and consultants of the project, reviewed progress on the Islamabad Metro Bus project from Peshawar Morr to New Islamabad International Airport.
It was observed during the meeting that there were some missing aspects in the work initiated earlier. The consultants briefed about the facilities to be provided to the commuters at each bus station to facilitate them which include walk through gates, security cameras, WiFi, real time passenger information display, public announcement system. A detailed layout plan of the bus depot was also presented in the meeting. Bus depots contain separate areas for maintenance workshop, service area, resting area for drivers, admin block, parking bays, command and control centre and offices.
It was decided that the Bus depot will not only cater for the requirements of the Metro Bus service project but will also fulfil similar needs of the Islamabad Bus service project. One depot will provide a consolidated and comprehensive cost effective solution. This will bring savings to the exchequer also. A day-care center to facilitate female staff with children, small barracks for guards providing security to the facility and provision of special ramps, rails and separate restrooms for differently-able persons have been added in the facility and layout plan was approved in principle in the meeting.
Chairman CDA directed the Project Director and consultants of the project to ensure that procurement of buses is completed within a four months period in order to extend this facility to the citizens of the capital in the shortest possible time. Tenders for procurement of buses have already been floated and now the tenders for construction of depot and systems will also be floated to meet the timelines.