The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat (CD&ED), which met at the Parliament House on Friday under the chairmanship of Senator Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, has directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to simplify procedure for obtaining NOC by the housing societies operating in the ICT.
To carry out periodic inspections of the sites to ascertain whether these societies are actually following on ground the engineering designs and other specifications submitted by them to the CDA or not.
It also asked the CDA to make sure that all societies, which have completed the necessary paper work (in accordance with the specifications prescribed by CDA), which have completed the necessary paper work (in accordance with the specifications prescribed by CDA), must be issued the NOC within one month's time after completion of the codal formalities.
The members of the Senate Committee took exception to the fact that the procedure prescribed by the CDA of the housing societies to obtain NOC is rather too strict, harsh and time-consuming, which is hampering the smooth and speedy work in connection with development of plots for actual construction of houses to ease the housing problems for the middle and lower income groups.
They observed that laws and procedures should be simple that they must facilitate achievement of the aforementioned objective for which these societies were created and allowed to function in the ICT. Unfortunately, a number of societies in which people have deposited millions of rupees, got stuck up in the never ending cycle of correspondences and objection, adding that they could take years.
"We must not presume that most of the housing societies are corrupt or inefficient. We should rather strive for helping out the efficient ones and the poor masses, who have deposited their hard earned money with them," said the members.
The senior officials of the CDA attending the meeting provided an undertaking to the Committee that each and every housing society, which has completed the formalities and paper work be issued the NOC within a month's time and acceptance letter of the layout plan would be released within seven days of the submission of designs etc, it found in order. They further informed that an advertisement would also be placed in the leading newspapers of the country in this connection so that the societies may also know about this development.
Senator Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, the Chairman of the Committee inquired how the CDA issued NOC to housing societies in certain cases where some societies (through owning the land on paper) were not in actual possession of the land and the issue got complicated when the parties locked their horns in litigation.
He instructed the CDA to provide all relevant details to the Committee about each and every society pace and scope of work it has actually carried out so far. He said a checklist/timeframe must be provided to every society to facilitate its working. The committee also observed that the CDA should not raise objections in piecemeal. Things should be dealt with speedily and in totality to avoid delays and confusions, said the Committee members.
The sections concerned of the CDA must try to guide and facilitate instead of obstructing and hindering the work of societies by raising objections every now and then, they added.
Senator Chaudhry Muhammad Anwar Bhinder also emphasised the need for not only for simplification of procedures but also for reviewing the condition of 30% land mortgage imposed by the CDA, which he termed as unjustified and a major hurdle in smooth development of land and creation of plots by the housing societies.
The Chairman CDA, who also attended the meeting, said that harsh regulations were there only to discipline the housing societies the bulk of which are not too keen to follow the rules and regulations and meet the deadlines.
He endorsed the observation that the issue of revenue/stamp duties and mortgage of plots needed review in light of prevailing circumstances. He said we should rather introduce the right balance.
He assured the Committee that his organisation would guide and facilitate the societies in completion of codal formalities and compliance of technical details.
The meeting was attended among others, by Senators Muhammad Abbas Komaili, Mrs Rehana Yahya Baloch, Fauzia Fakhur-uz-Zaman, Chaudhry Muhammad Anwar Bhinder and Kamran Murtaza besides the Chairman CDA and senior officials of the Cabinet Division.-PR
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