Township Model Bazaar lacks basic facilities

LAHORE :Even after its establishment some six years back, the Township Model Bazaar lacks basic facilities, and its visitors face overcharging and shortage of essential items.

A recent survey of the bazaar reveals that construction work is going on there due to which citizens are facing multiple problems. The first problem starts at the parking, which has shrunk to a half due to the establishment of a joy land and a food court. Building construction material is lying at different places in the remaining parking area due to which citizens found it hard to park their vehicles with ease.

The bazaar had almost 510 shops and after entrance right side shops of the bazaar were mostly occupied by sellers of ladies and children garments, used household goods, clothes and, etc. Fruit and vegetable shops are situated on the left side of the bazaar and meat and grocery section was on right side.

Though the bazaar is well-covered, citizens complained about foul smell of rotten vegetables and fruits because many vendors throw their trash in the open as well as at the back side of their shops. It is pertinent to mention here that a visitor’s help desk, which is placed just next to the bazaar’s entrance, was usually found vacant.

Lack of shopping trolleys is also a common problem being faced by the visitors. A large number of trolleys are available in the bazaar but most of them are either broken or had some fault. “Every time I come to bazaar, I didn’t find a fully fit trolley,” said Ms Hashim, a regular visitor of the bazaar. She said it was very hard to drag a trolley with loose or broken tyres.

Overcharging of fruits and vegetables is a common complaint. Majority of the visitors said that almost every shopkeeper is overcharging four to five rupees higher than the official rates. “I purchased strawberries at Rs 150 per kg whereas the rate mentioned on the official rate list was Rs 140,” said Saroosh, another female customer. She said when she complained to the shopkeeper about this high price, he rudely said she should pay the price or leave.

“I can’t believe that a shopkeeper sitting in a subsidised bazaar can adopt such behaviour with the customers/visitors,” she said, adding she lodged a complaint with the bazaar management and it said that it will impose a fine of Rs 500 on the shopkeeper. Similarly, the rates of other fruits and vegetables are charged higher than those mentioned in the daily rate list. It was observed that the quality of meat, especially beef and mutton is very low while fish corner was empty. “It is very hard to even stand in the meat section due to stink,” said Mehmood, a visitor said, adding the way shopkeepers are handling chickens was very unhygienic and their counters are very dirty.

During the visit, it was observed that the CCTV cameras of the bazaar are missing while no bazaar’s official was seen in official uniform. However, in-charge of the bazaar, Fahad, claimed that the CCTV at entrance of the bazaar is working while an order had already been placed for installation of more CCTV cameras. He said the management issued uniform to the officials but it went old and new order is under process. He said all officials of bazaar’s management are wearing their duty cards and citizens can ask help or lodge complaint to them.

Talking about the broken trolleys, he said only a dozen trolleys are broken. However, one can spot a large stockpile of broken trolleys lying at a corner inside the bazaar. Fahad said the management takes immediate action against the complaints of overcharging and no shopkeeper is spared.

Recently, the management cut dozens of trees from outside of the bazaar and a greenbelt-cum-garden is being under-construction around the bazaar. The News repeatedly tried to contact Chief Officer Nasir Rafique of Punjab Model Bazaars Management Company, which is running this bazaar, on his phone and sent SMS but he didn’t reply.