TMA launches drive against builder mafia

The Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA), Multan has launched an extensive drive against builder mafia for financially which had constructed a number of commercial plazas and shopping centers in the city without any prior permission with the connivance of concerned staff and they did not make payment of prescribed fee, resultantly TMA incurred a huge revenue loss, city Nazim Mian Faisal Mukhtar Shaikh disclosed this in a hurriedly called press conference here and said.
The city tehsil government has also served show cause notices on five high ranking officials of tehsil municipal administration (TMA) for their alleged connivance of the violation and the services of those officials would be terminated who would fail to respond satisfactorily within seven days.
The City Nazim said that a notice was served on the owners of Madni Plaza for payment of fee and penalty of Rs 52.3 million under town planning rules and had also ordered an inquiry against the owners of Al-Rahim Centre who had tampered the map to save the plan approval fee.
Earlier, the City Nazim on abruptly transferred 104 employees including high ranking officials from their present posts following the charges of corruption, plundering of National exchequer, negligence of duty, an inefficiency and unabated public complaints against these official who were plundering the public with both hands.
This large scale transfers are the first incident in the history that was taken by local government elected representative institution.
The Nazim said Madni plaza owner Malik Muhammad Tahir tempered the approved map of plaza, occupied 250-Sq. feet of estate land and he also did not allocate space for parking in violation of commercial building rules. He said that show cause notices have been served to five TMA officials include ex-tehsil officer planning Farrah Mehfoz Bhatti (presently on leave), ex-superintendent tehsil officer planning Chaudhry Muhammad Siddique, Patwari Zia Bukhari, draftsman Pervez Iqbal and building inspector Muhammad Ashraf who allegedly helped the plaza owner in doing illegal act.
The employees might be fired from their services with in seven days if they failed to submit satisfactory response, he added.
The Nazim said that as per decision of TMA commercialisation committee, the owners of plazas and shopping centers were binding to allocate at least 250 square feet area for parking which is called state land the plaza owner for keeping spare 250 square feet estate land (TMA controlled) but he illegally included piece of land in his plaza.
A numbers of shops were constructed on this piece of estate land. The owner tempered approved map and changed the lift place and installed at unapproved place. He said the TMA committee approved sparing of 15-feet space but the plaza owner left only ten feet space and also did not vacate space for parking in violation of approved map rules and regulations.
The city tehsil constituted an inquiry committee headed by MDA director engineering Muhammad Tayyab who probed the matter and recommended fine of Rs 52.3 million fine to the owner.
The Nazim declared the shopping plaza would be sealed with in a month for not depositing the fine while a separate case is being filed for violation of not vacating space for parking. The TMA tehsil municipal officer Colonel Tabassum Saqib Butt and other officials were present on the occasion.