PAC Committee seeks detailed list of nursery plot allottees

ISLAMABAD: The Special Committee of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Saturday directed the Capital Development Authority to submit details of its 22 nursery plot allottees within a fortnight.

A meeting of the Committee was held here at CDA headquarters here. Convener of the Committee, Nadeem Afzal Chan MNA and Noor-ul-Haq Qadri MNA, Chairman CDA and officials of the civic authority attended the meeting.

Chan said the issue of PAC was not eight nurseries allotted along Park Road but the committee wants to know about the status of all 22 nurseries owned by CDA and allotted to various persons.

Chairman Capital Development Authority said the CDA has finalised a plan to re-auction the land leased out to nurseries.

He told the committee that the civic authority's board had approved a policy for auctioning nursery plots on an open auction basis in which the highest bidder would be given licenses for 10 years to set up nurseries there.

He said the CDA, following PAC's directions, had terminated the 30-year lease of eight nurseries and they were operating on one-year licence. The PAC had found irregularities in the extension of lease of eight nursery plots on Park Road near Chak Shahzad. These nurseries are paying a Rs11,718 per acre per annum rent which was Rs9,375 during 2007-2010.

Chan directed CDA to provide a copy of minutes of meeting of the Board of Directors which allotted nurseries.

Chan observed that the CDA had not followed the rules while extending the lease periods. The committee had found that in 2009, the CDA had renewed the leases of eight out of the 23 plots for 30 years without inviting bids.

The CDA chairman answered the land had been leased in good faith, and the CDA had started leasing out land in the early 70s but the irregularities in leasing out the plots had occurred for lack of a policy in this regard.

Bidding Guidelines

Following are the salient features of the CDA's policy for leasing out land to nurseries:

1) The allotment would be made by inviting applications through the press and auction held among the pre-qualified parties.

2) Applications for licensing nursery plots will be invited from the individuals, firms and companies with sufficient experience

in raising trees, ornamental/decorative plants and flowers production. They must have the experience of successfully running

the nursery business for more than five years.

3) The applications received will be scrutinised by a three- member committee, headed by member (estate).

4) The allotment will be on the licence basis for a period of

10 years and the licenses would be renewed on yearly basis.

5) The licence fee shall be increased at the rate of 25% after every three years.

6) Nursery plots will be liable to cancellation if the licensee fails to develop the nursery within one year from the date of taking possession of the land.

7) The CDA will have the right to revoke any licence at any time without assigning any reason by giving a two-month notice in advance.

8) The licensee of the land will only establish a nursery and no other use will be allowed at the licensed land.

9) The licensee will not be allowed to construct any permanent building or structure on the plots licensed for nursery.

10) The licensee shall be bound to first sell the planned stock grown in the nursery to the civic authority, if so required by it.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011