Islamabad - Horticulturists in Islamabad’s premium civic agency, Capital Development Authority (CDA), have finally estimated the total loss incurred by participants of Inquilab March on the greenery and trees on Constitution Avenue that amounts to millions of rupees.
While the seasonal plants along Constitutions Avenue, some grown trees and a sprinkler system on the leafy road became the first casualty when followers of Dr Tahirul Qadri, chief of Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT), pitched their tents, what worries the horticulturists more is the loss of over 20 precious adult pine trees outside the Parliament Lodges.
According to CDA officials, the whispering pine trees along Constitution Avenue have been chopped down by PAT workers so that they could use the wood for making temporary shelters for themselves.
“I have complete documentary and pictures of the trees, pines and flowers before and after the sit-in. The grass has been damaged and pine trees were cut down callously,” Fareedullah Khan, Horticulture Officer at CDA, told The Nation on Monday.
“So far we have estimated that the losses suffered by horticulture side due to the sit-in are to the tune of Rs 20.5 million. We have floated fresh tender for plantation because the entire flower bed of Constitution Avenue has been damaged badly,” he added.
Although PAT chief Dr Qadri had promised that his participants would not damage even a single flowerpot on Constitution Avenue, yet CDA officials have neither found a container nor any plant on the venue, as either the flowerpots are missing or have been left broken.
The environment wing of CDA has registered a complaint with Secretariat Police Station against the organisers of the sit-in, arguing that adult trees had been cut down by the protesters, besides inflicting damages on civic infrastructure.
Horticulture authorities have also discovered that the water sprinkling system on Constitution Avenue has been dismantled by the protesters using the pipeline network for washing purposes. “We were stunned to know that the water sprinkling system does not exist anymore.
It has been uprooted and taken away. Protesters broke the pipes in order to quench thirst.
But in fact the water was not fit for human consumption,” an official said.
The engineering wing of CDA has similar complaints about participants of the sit-in, complaining that several streetlights at D-Chowk have been missing claiming that several facilities had been damaged.
An official said that protesters had inflicted heavy losses on road infrastructure by breaking road medians and footpaths, besides damaging water supply networks.
He added that the assessment of damages had not yet been completed although FIR had been registered with the area police.