The 'Hawkers Zone' project of City District Government Karachi (CDGK), which was envisaged to help the downtrodden people, is not fulfilling its purposes; rather it has become a source of encroachment in different areas of the city. The small cabins, the cost of which was estimated at least Rs 58,000 each, were not only being given to the influential people but these were also being sold out at a cost between Rs 100,000 and Rs 250,000 each at different markets and locations of the city.
These cabins were also installed in different areas of Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Jamshed Town, two densely populated towns of the city, in a haphazard way so that the city roads had also been encroached upon. Not only the rates of these cabins, at prominent markets, were high but the poor people were hardly getting a cabin for selling wares on streets in the area.
An applicant, who had applied for a cabin at KDA market, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, said that he had asked for payment of Rs 150,000 by the concerned department of the Town Municipal Administration. He said he, however, was also offered the same with cheaper rate at other locations of the town.
Another applicant of the cabin at Bahadurabad area complained that the project was not affordable for them as the government officials were asking for more than the estimated cost of the cabins. According to sources, the Hawkers Zone, established with lack of planning, is likely to create serious civic problems in the respective areas as the surroundings of these cabins were also being encroached upon by shopkeepers.
The establishment of 'hawkers zones', to be developed under the 'Urban Space management Program' of CDGK in all towns of the city was started in the city after a resolution was passed in the City Council on June 20, 2009. According to the resolution, the cost of Rs 58,000 was estimated for each hawker zone, to be funded by City District Government Karachi (CDGK), Town Administrations and Union Councils.
Justifying the need of the 'hawkers zones', the resolution said that the increasing numbers of pushcarts were not only presenting the ugly picture of the city but also stopping the flow of traffic. The hawkers zones, under the program would be constructed on specified locations, with the similarities of size, colour and capacity. This program, it said, would be introduced in the 18 towns of the city to discourage the pushcarts but, initially, in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Shah-Faisal Town, these cabins would be constructed. But sources said that though the move was a good one, it failed to stop the pushcarts spread across the city.
These hawkers, they said, would not confine themselves to the specific location and part of land given to them, as many cases of encroachment by these people had been witnessed in the past. However, despite repeated attempts, the concerned officials in the Town administration and CDGK could be contacted for comments.
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