As many as 741 Katchi Abadis out of 825 in Punjab have been regularised and 82769 families have been granted propriety rights whereas process has been started to give ownership rights to 127094 remaining families during the current year.
This was stated by Provincial Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Muhammad Basharat Raja after a briefing given by DG Katchi Abadis and Urban Improvement Syed Munawar Abbas, here on Friday, disclosed an official. It was informed in the meeting that Rs 492.5 million have been spent during the last three years on development projects in Katchi Abadis.
The Minister said that a special programme has been launched for improving the living conditions in urban slums of three major cities of Punjab ie Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Multan.
This project is being executed under National Urban Poverty Alleviation Programme, he added. Raja Basharat said that Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has directed to regularise 25 more Katchi Abadis established on provincial government land, waiver of surcharge till March, 31, 2007 and 50 percent reduction in developmental charges.
He said under the new policy only six major components comprising main road, main water supply, main electricity, main Sui gas line, main sewerage and parks are completed by the government whereas the internal lane level activities are taken by the community itself.