LAHORE: Punjab government has directed Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Director General (DG) to change the commercialisation charges in a bid to stop illegal commercial activities from happening in non- commercial properties.
At a meeting held earlier this month on November 7th, Punjab government in Standing Committee of the Cabinet on Legislative instructed LDA to increase, revise and amend commercialisation charges as a preventive measure to discourage the growing trend of commercialisation.
The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the issue of temporary commercialisation of properties in the city.
In order to reiterate the government’s seriousness in this regard, Punjab Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering secretary wrote a letter to LDA director general asking him to implement the decisions taken in a meeting of Standing Committee.
LDA was instructed to make amendments to Rule, 28 and 31 of LDA Land Use Rules, 2014. Rule 28 deals with conversion, commercialisation and permissibility fee while rule 31 deals with temporary commercialisation.
The meeting raised serious objections over the increasing trend of commercialisation across the city and held the LDA’s temporary commercialisation policy responsible for the mess.
Under the rule 31, the authority may allow temporary commercialisation of land or property in the area, for a period up to ten years. Temporary commercialisation was allowed on an annual basis while the owner needs to get a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the neighbours.
Acting on the instructions, LDA has sealed 13 buildings in the upper Mall area for illegal commercial activities. LDA Commercialisation Wing has also identified 32 buildings on Upper Mall where illegal commercial activities were going on for the past many years, resulting in over Rs 150 million loss to the national exchequer annually.
