Basant — preparing for a festival or going to war?

Lahoris throng Jinnah Hall to get safety rods for bikes

Staff Report

LAHORE: Around 10,000 Lahoris thronged Jinnah Hall on Friday to get safety rods being distributed to avoid kite-flying accidents. The district government will distribute around 52,000 safety rods. The rods will cost CDGL about Rs 1 million.

The rods are meant to protect the bike riders, particularly the children sitting on the bikes’ fuel tanks, from kite twine. The officials installing the rods on motorcycles frequently got into arguments with motorcyclists.

Naveed Ahmad, a resident of Walton Road, told Daily Times that he wanted to shield himself for the Basant hazard. He said he wanted a rod because he had to pick and drop his son at school on his motorbike. “Throat of my friend’s son was slit by a stray-kite twine last year,” he said. Tanvir Ahmad said he had not come to get a rod of his own volition. “It is a compulsion,” he said. Fretting about the government’s failure to protect the lives of citizens, he wondered why in the first place the government was bent upon organising the Basant mela for two days. The CDGL has designated five points for distributing safety rods. They are Regal Chowk, Bhati Chowk, Ghari Shahu, Ferozpur Road and Town Hall. The CDGL has also directed the town administrations to distribute 20,000 rods each.

‘Lahore will be totally decorated’: The Parks and Horticulture Authority unveiled its Jashan-e-Baharan Programme on Friday.

PHA director general Irfan Ali told a press conference that this year the authority had focussed on decorating the whole city. He said Warid Telecom and Coke would help PHA with the project. He said this year’s Basant would involve the history, heritage and culture of the city. He said PHA was collaborating with the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab to organise the Cholistan Rally. Asked if PHA would organise kite flying competitions on February 24 and 25, he said no. He said PHA would plant 200,000 flowers in the city.

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