Date: 14/03/2023

Worthy Deputy Commissioner,

Tharparkar @ Mithi.

Subject: COMPLAINT AGAINST THE VILLAGERS OF VILLAGE CHAHOONIAR (MEGHWAR PARO)

TALUKA ISLAMKOT ON ACCOUNT OF ILLEGAL ENCHROCHMENT OF GALIES.
Wardi Sir,

It may be brought to your kind notice that most of the villagers of my village Chahooniar (Meghwar
Para) Taluka Islamkot have illegally encroached and made the narrow Lorha based Galies, hence no vehicle
even people cannot move or walk easily through the narrowed Galies. However, the villagers have been
repeatedly requested to keep their wide Galies: but on the contrary, they do not care of any inconvenience of
the local community.
It may be further stated the most common and serious issue in Tharparkar is the spontaneous
burning of local cottages/huts (Chonras and Landhies). The existing infrastructure of closely thorny bushes made
hedges (Lorhas) are often spaced by hardly 10 to 12 feet, each known to be a boundary wall of the separate
village houses, which plays an effective role in rapid-fire catching. These hedges are very flammable due to the
characteristic of theirs; they quickly catch fire. The leading causes of ignition are the dropped residual cigarettes,
firecrackers, or short circuits. Moreover, as these hedges and huts/cottages are closely made with each other,
which catch fire and spread quickly, they end up burning dozens of huts in a single go. The main reason for the
spreading of fire is the narrow-width streets (Galies), closely mud made huts and high wind velocity, which can
catch fire very soon from one house to another neighboring. Hence, these streets do not allow fire brigades to
access the burning homes for extinguishing; ultimately, it causes the inevitable loss. For instance, on 12th May
2017, it was reported in Dawn newspaper that "more than 500 houses were reduced to ashes in village Wakrio,
Tharparkar," in which almost 100 tied animals were killed, seven people got injured and burning up every
accessory, ornaments, and stocks of fodder in no time. For a villager, it takes a half-lifetime to collect precious
accessories, which just get vanished in a blink of an eye. There are hundreds of such cases reported in the last
ten years including the recent burning of houses more than 30 in Aqli Para Mithi and Mithrio Bhatti, in which
1000s of families not only lost their abode, but they also bitterly suffered to loss their cattle, tied within the
premises of their houses, clothes, household goods, agricultural stock, livestock fodder and the precious jewelry,
which they saved for the dowry of their descendants. In this connection, the district administration, in
collaboration with NGOs, has been facing the pitiable situation of the miserable people of the area very
dedicatedly and efficiently from time to time since long.

In view of the above-explained facts, you are requested to kindly pass the orders for vacating and
widening the local Lorha based Galies, in order to avoid any mishap causing by fire and enabling the local
community to move easily.

You kind action in this respect, shall be in the vast and best interest of the villagers.

Best Regards,

Engr. Amrat Punhani

Researcher/ Social Activist
Cell No. 0333-4679281