Sher Shah Colony: A plethora of problems

LAHORE – The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) have created plethora of problems for the residents of Sher Shah Colony, a government employees housing colony, situated on Raiwind Road, a survey conducted by TheNation revealed.

The housing colony is situated on the main entrance to the LDA Housing Scheme. The authorities want to facilitate residents of LDA scheme at the cost of sufferings of Sher Shah Colony residents who own only three-marla homes.

The TMA officials and elected members avow tall claims but poor condition of government schools; pitiable transportation and ignored parks tell altogether a different story.

The residents of the Sher Shah Colony Raiwind Road told TheNation that they had long been ignored by the City District Government and the Town Municipal Administration. Syed Arshad Shah and Malik Zulfqar, officebearers of a local welfare society, said that a road was constructed in 1990s to link the Raiwind Road and the LDA Housing Society. This road was spoiled by WASA to install sewage pipes for LDA B Block.

The authority behaves indifferently to deal with this severe issue of the people of the area.

The repeated efforts and applications filed to the high ups bore no fruit, they regretted. The commuters especially the employees and the students have to suffer a lot due to the dilapidated condition of the link road. They also held the LDA authorities responsible for doing no patch work on the road. Interestingly, a hundred piece of this road adjacent to the main Raiwind Road had been completely built as a display case just to show the CM who travels on the road daily. They also blamed the Housing and Town Planning Agency for doing nothing when approached in this regard.

Government College of Technology Raiwind Road PRO Hafiz Farooq Ahmad said that the broken road adjacent to the college campus has not only damaged the location of this institution but also is a home for mosquitoes.

He also criticised the district government authorities for giving deaf ear to the demands of the people. Hundreds of the daily commuters and the college students are directly hurt by this road. He appealed to the CDGL authorities to take necessary measures to repair this road.
The locals of the society criticised the education department for not providing teaching staff in the high schools constructed in previous era. A huge amount of about Rs 45 million had been spent on the construction of school buildings. There are only five teachers for the strength of 500 students, they complained. Many applications in this regard were forwarded to the EDO Education, but to no avail. They also criticised Afzal Khokhar who made three visits to this area but did nothing to resolve the grave issues.

They gave a severe reprimand to the high-ups for cancellation of old route of Bus 77 (Railway station to Sher Shah Colony) due to the dilapidated condition of road linking Raiwind Road and Sher Shah Colony.

There is no gas in the colony falling on the outskirts of the metropolis, they remarked. Though the ‘gas supply project’ has been approved for this housing scheme and the contractor dug up burrows to install the pipes but did not refill them quashing the terms of the contract.

No body is there to question the contractor for doing this unlawful act that might cause any physical or property loss as the rainy season is in progress.

Mohammad Aslam, a former resident of the colony, said he sold his home in the jurisdiction of Sher Shah Colony and settled in Dubai Town. The worth of the property and constructed apartments has fallen down owing to transportation problems due to the broken road.

He also criticised the Town authorities for taking no interest to solve the problems of the people. The town administration if sincere to discharge its duties can help resolve colony’s basic problems like sanitation, patch-work and fumigation against mosquitoes.