LAHORE:Illegal constructions, especially commercial buildings and China cutting continued in the LDA housing schemes while it did nothing except looking the buildings rise like a toothless tiger.
Talking to The News on the condition of anonymity, several senior officials of Town Planning wing of LDA claimed that all kind of ‘inside facilitation’ was available for the construction mafia and only ‘fake’ operations were done against them to fill the files.
Explaining the phenomenon of China cutting, they said as per LDA rules a plot can’t be bifurcated after a certain size but in many LDA owned societies like Iqbal Town, Sabzaar, Township and etc. the plots of ten and five marlas were being bifurcated into two or three parts, which was illegal.
There were several examples in which so called demolition operation against illegal constructions was exposed as work resumed at those buildings after a day or two.A senior Town Planner of LDA said recent example of the above fact was an illegal commercial building situated at Umer Block, Allama Iqbal Town where the authorities concerned carried out an eye-wash operation but construction resumed after a few days. He said during the operation, the pillars of the buildings were not touched which was a major violation and only its front was demolished slightly.
Sources in TP wing said recently LDA’s Chief Town Planner-I issued show cause notice to the Deputy Director and Assistant Director of Iqbal Town for ‘facilitating’ construction of commercial shops at the ground floor of an apartment in Umer Block while many ongoing illegal constructions in Karim, Ravi, Asif and other blocks of Allama Iqbal Town were also reported to the authorities concerned.
Senior officials of TP wing said that in case of a complaint to the higher-ups, eye-washed operations were conducted and the illegal structures in a way that minimum loss was caused to the buildings. They said in the second step, the building owner was told from the ‘insiders’ to cover up the construction area with a big wall or green wrap so no one can see what was going on inside the covered place while in the third phase a stay order was brought and finally an FIR was launched against the building contractor to settle down the issue on the papers.
They suggested that videography of all operations should be done and viewed by a committee of senior officials of separate departments for fact checking. They expressed concern over eye-wash operations and said this culture should be ended.
The News contacted the Chief Town Planner-I Asad Zaman and discussed the issue with him and property numbers of buildings were given to him where illegal construction was going on. He said that he would inquire into the matter and take strict action would be taken.
