After a loss of more than Rs 600 million in two years, the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) has restored building plan powers to all nine towns to help them regain financial stability, Pakistan Today has learnt.
A notification in this regard is all set to be issued in two or three days. All towns have been facing a severe financial crisis after having been stripped of the building plan powers in 2009. These powers allowed them to collect hefty fees by approving maps of buildings. “Recently a high-level meeting was held in the commissioner office, which was attended by Lahore DCO Ahad Cheema and officials of towns to finalise new adjustments to the system and brief TMOs and town planning officers about the SOPs regarding powers to approve building plans and fee structures,” a senior CDGL official told Pakistan Today.
After getting back the powers, towns will prepare and maintain the demarcation records of each and every plot of a scheme, check violations against approved building plans and building regulations and decide cases regarding composition of violations and processing of land use conversion according to the rules. Towns will also keep maintenance of demarcation records, issue completion certificate of all buildings erected on plots of schemes after composition of violations, check and remove unauthorised constructions, encroachments and illegal land use conversions, through statutory and physical measures.
They will design plans of land sub-division, public utilities, amenities and facilities, processing and disposal of queries regarding land use, housing and urban planning situations in the city, processing and issuance of no objection certificates for establishment of different land uses, petrol pumps, CNG stations, mosques in the area, in the light of prevailing policies and other related planning documents and rendering advices on periodic improvements and modifications in existing land use plans, zoning and building regulations and polices of the authority.
Town official Shahbaz Ahmed said that since the DCO got the powers in 2009, large numbers of building plans were not approved that caused public inconvenience. “With the powers back to towns again, residential building plans would be approved by towns and relevant fees would go in towns’ kitties. Commercial building plans would be submitted in the town but approved by the DCO and fees would be submitted in towns,” he added. Shahbaz said that a high-level design committee, under the DCO, had been formed in this regard. Former Aziz Bhatti Town administrator Aftab Ahmed rapped former DCO Sajjad Bhutta for centralising building plan powers in the DCO office, saying it was a real blunder, which caused loss of millions of rupees.
But he regretted that the Punjab government did not take any action against Bhutta for committing the blunder, as he belonged to the DMG. An official of the DCO office told Pakistan Today that according to the devolution plan, nazims and deputy nazims had significant role in town administration. As soon as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) came into power in Punjab in 2008, the role of city district nazim and town nazims was curtailed and town municipal officers (TMO) were empowered to approve building plans.
Bhutta swallowed all powers and divided the city into 14 sectors and appointed DOs (enforcement and inspection) to approve building plans of 10 marla plots and retained the power to approve plans for plots measuring more than 10 marlas. Bhutta stripped the DOs of their powers after one month and constituted a special committee headed by Executive District Officer (Works and Services) Waqar Goraiya.
The committee was tasked to approve the building plans of all residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and public utility sites in all housing schemes. The committee approved approximately 500 building plans but without referring them to the Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (TEPA). The official said that since the day the CDGL shifted approval powers of building plans from the Town Municipal Administration (TMA) to the DCO, TEPA was hardly consulted.
He added that such uninformed approvals inflicted irreparable damage to smooth traffic flow and road safety. A senior official of the LDA Town Planning Branch said that under a structural road plan, LDA sought clearance from TEPA before approving building plans in the areas served by it. He said that some of the plans approved by the former DCO should not have been approved, as the proposed buildings would obstruct roads likely to be constructed or broadened soon.
