LAHORE: Even after the passage of 40 years, the authorities have failed to acquire at least 117 kanals land of the federal government in the provincial capital from the illegal occupation of different residents, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The said land is a part of the Federal Colony adjacent to the city’s Canal Bank Road.
Sources in the Pakistan people’s work department (PPWD) told this scribe that the federal government in 1978 purchased 1000 kanals from the settlement department to establish a housing society for the employees of the federal government working in Lahore.
“Later on, the federal government purchased another 353 kanals from the Punjab government when it started developing the society while foreseeing the needs of the future,” they said while adding that the matter became controversial when a major part of the land was declared as katchi abadi (squatter settlement) in 1985.
Sources said that due to the negligence of the housing and work department that remained reluctant to pursue the case properly while alleging the bigwigs of the katchi abadi directorate for backing the illegal occupants.
According to the documents available with this correspondent, the land stood mutated in favour of the federal government in the revenue records. The documents state that the land falls in the residential area of the Dhana Singh Wala village of Lahore since before its purchase through the settlement department in the year 1979.
The documents read that among the 1353 kanals, the federal government transferred 139 kanals to the Board of Revenue Housing Society while it returned 155 kanals to the private owners. After this, the remaining 1059 kanals had to be transferred to the housing and works department, but it could not be possessed as 86 kanals were under illegal occupation of the katchi abadi while 31 kanals was illegally occupied by the residents of the village. The document also confirmed that the possession of the said land was never handed over to PPWD.
The housing department claims that it owns 1059 kanals, but all it has is 942 kanals as the remaining 86 kanals are under illegal occupation of the katchi abadi while 31 kanals are illegally occupied by the residents of the Dhana Singh village.
It is pertinent to mention here that a site survey conducted by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and PPWD in 1987 also confirmed that 86 kanals have been illegally occupied by the residents of the katchi abadi.
An official of the housing and works department speaking to Pakistan Today on the condition of anonymity told that the department took all possible measures to control the encroachment and to recover the illegal possession on government land. He alleged that most of the land was occupied by the land grabbers who are backed by the officials of the katchi abadi.
“The department also served legal notices to 248 illegal occupants, but no further progress could be made due to the non-availability of a legal team,” he added.
However, an official of the katchi abadi directorate told that among the controversial land, only 48 kanals fell under its jurisdiction. He rejected any allegations of occupying the federal government’s land illegally, and also rejected the claims that the directorate was backing anyone who was occupying the government’s land.