ISLAMABAD: On the directions of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the CDA now seems serious to curb encroachments as the planning wing of CDA in collaboration with Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), the national space agency, is all set to identify encroachments in capital through the satellite system.
Two meetings in this regard were already held; SUPARCO will update CDA’s Planning Wing every month by providing them updated and detailed images of every sector in capital.
SUPARCO would establish its setup in CDA headquarters in coming weeks; then it would provide the images twice a week to help CDA, instead of sending its field officers to assigned areas and sought reports.
The CDA has been focusing on the developed sectors only while ignoring a significant portion of the capital where buildings have been constructed without following the rules. Resultantly, the rural areas of the federal capital where housing schemes are being developed haphazardly are staining the image of the capital city.
Recently, under CDA’s 1960 ordinance, it was notified that CDA would implement its building bylaws in all of Islamabad after which no construction is allowed anywhere in the capital without the permission of the civic agency.
“This move would help CDA to mark the encroachments by comparing it from the images of previous months, this will become too easy for CDA now,” said an official of MCI.
The move was launched after all mechanisms of CDA to curb encroachment have proved vein. It is noted that, till the local administration has failed to control the menace of encroachments in the city, as after every operation, encroachments resurfaces.
Earlier, the prime minister in a strongly worded letter reprimanded the CDA. Following the letter, four officials of the civic agency were also suspended.
After this episode, Mayor-cum-Chairman CDA, Sheikh Ansar Aziz assured Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that the federal capital would be given a “new look” within 90 days. However, the promised time would expire next month, April 6.
Talking to Pakistan Today, the mayor said that the PM has directed him earlier to coordinate with SUPARCO and make a mechanism to identify encroachments on time and act accordingly.
It is relevant to mention here that recently, the Supreme Court of Pakistan also took notice of a number of municipal bylaws being violated in the protected Bani Gala, Islamabad.
The apex court has sought a detailed report from the capital’s civic agency within 10 days about alleged continuous large-scale encroachments on a large chunk of land allocated for the botanical gardens, the absence of a waste disposal system and haphazard construction of multi-storied plazas in the area.
When contacted, Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz said that this new mechanism would help the authority to identify the encroachmen.
“I have instructed concerned enforcement staff to crackdown on a daily basis to clean the city at any cost,” he claimed. He said that it was his duty to clean this city from encroachment mafia.