Bahawalpur Cantonment Executive Officer Raja Ali Asad on Saturday requested residents in the area to remove encroachments from in front of their houses within a week. “We will launch a crackdown against the encroachments after a week and they will soon be removed,” Asad said.
“When I assumed charge six months ago, no one wanted to visit the cantonment parks as they had fallen into disarray. My staff and I have turned things around,” Asad told The Express Tribune.
None of the shops or schools in the area had paid commercialisation tax to the authority in several years, he said. The body, however, recovered Rs147.199 million in taxes against a target of Rs231.587 million in six months, said Asad. The authority has replaced street lights and renovated the parks in the area, he said.
A total of eight water filter plants had been installed to provide residents clean drinking water. Their filters are changed every month, he said.
“My staff and I have managed to beautify the area,” Asad said. His team’s crown jewel so far is the Gulzar-i-Sadiq jogging track. Street lights have been fitted along the track, he said.
Chaudhry Muhammad Mehboob Ahmed, a resident in the area, said the Cantonment Board had done remarkable development work. They have improved security in the park. Now a lot of people go jogging on the Gulzar-i-Sadiq track, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 21st, 2013.