After a long delay, Capital Development Authority (CDA), finally on Saturday, started physical possession of land earmarked for sector E-12, Business Recorder learnt here on Saturday. Talking to Business Recorder, Asad Ullah Faiz, Director Land, CDA said that Kamran Lashari, Chairman CDA has announced this during his visit to sector E-12 on Saturday.
Dr Israr Shah, MNA PPP, senior CDA officials and representatives of the area were also present on the occasion. Director land said that soon the CDA would start demolishing the houses of the localities and award them the rehabilitation facility in return. He said that in the first phase, CDA would acquire 313 acres of land, whereas previously the authority had taken possession of 2,500 kanals in the sector.
Asad said that taking over possession from the localities is no doubt a big hurdle in developing new sector. "Because of this, the development works of many sectors have been delayed", he added.
He further said that to avoid delay in various development/infrastructure projects, CDA from now on has decided to work on ground rather then taking the work to the office, filing papers etc. Asad said that the development work in the sector would be assigned to one or more contractors, so that the project should be completed in the shortest possible time.
Sharing the background of the sector E-12, sources told this scribe that both Sectors E-12 and D-12 were sold by the CDA in 1989. Development of Sector D-12 has started, but the development of E-12 was held up. "In 1985 CDA acquired the land to open a new sector. The CDA thereafter allotted plots to the citizens in 1988. Then the authority maintained two lists, A and B containing 1,935 affected people.
However, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) decided to compensate them and take back the possession of the land and announced that only 700 cases were genuine while rest of the 1,235 cases were bogus", said sources. In accordance with the decision, the CDA prepared a package deal in 2006 and it was decided in the court of law that NAB would compensate the victims within three months, the official sources confide, adding that the exercise proved futile.
Later, the authority argued that as it was a judicial order resultantly an executive inquiry into the matter was not possible. Consequently, the matter was referred to the CDA to initiate talks with the locals, the official said. He also said that with the involvement of the CDA high-ups and local leaders, the affected people agreed to comply with the deal of 2006 and to give possession to the CDA.
Further, the officials revealed that the victims would be compensated with 138 sq-yards plots against 300 sq-ft build up property (BUP) and 200 sq-yards plots against 500 sq-ft or above BUP. They stated that the authority had allocated plots for affected people in sector I-14.
'However, as per demand of the locals, the authority will also create plots for affected people in other sectors', officials maintained. They further added that all the affected people would be compensated after the scrutiny of lists A and B. Moreover, the sources also disclosed that the CDA has agreed to compensate those also, who were earlier not included in the list.
The CDA sources said that a month ago the chairman, CDA, called a meeting of engineering wing to draw a final strategy for executing development work in the sector. They further informed Business Recorder that the sector has more than 4,000 plots measuring 111 sq-yards to 600 sq-yards. It is hoped that the CDA will now initiate development work in Sector E-12 so that the allottees that have been waiting for the last 17 or 18 years may not wait anymore.