Monsoon Puts Hundreds of Lives at Risk in Lahore
The only way out is to demolish these buildings but here in Lahore, the biggest challenge the City District Government has been facing in demolishing the dilapidated buildings is the poor families living in these houses. They are compelled to live in these houses for two reasons – Firstly, the local government does not have any policy to provide alternate residence to them. Secondly, these families do not have enough money to repair these houses or do not have resources to shift to any other home in any other area.
Despite the fact that local government is fully aware of the condition of these dilapidated houses and the havoc, monsoon can bring for these buildings, no practical solution is found out yet. Lahore District Coordination Officer Captain (Retd) Muhammad Usman said, ""A Punjab level committee is reviewing the situation. We have made three categories of dilapidated buildings. One are the those that need to be demolished. Second are those that should be repaired and one that must be got vacated."
Recently, a survey has been conducted in which 200 buildings were identified in Lahore, out of which 80 buildings have been demolished. 200 other buildings were also identified, which could remain safe for residents after repairing, out of them 159 have been repaired. "If the government sees people living in dilapidated buildings who are not economically strong to uplift their house then we help them. Otherwise there is no mechanism set in Punjab Local Government Act 2013 to provide alternative residence. At the most we provide them tent for living during the rainy season," the DCO said.
When it comes to Walled City, several buildings have been identified dangerous out of which 44 building owners have been sent notices to repair them. WCLA has also received Rs20 million for the conservation of dilapidated buildings.