Plots balloting: Civic body to install new software

New software to replace CDA system allegedly used for rigging.

ISLAMABAD: In a move to ensure transparency in the balloting of plots, the capital’s civic agency is expected to replace its existing in-house software with the one developed by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

The balloting software is expected to be handed over to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in the coming week.  The civic agency will pay Rs2 million to install the software that has been developed by NADRA’s technology department.

“It will be used for balloting of plots to ensure transparency in the process of allotting plot numbers to applicants,” CDA spokesperson Ramzan Sajid told The Express Tribune.

The civic body board had shown its interest in purchasing the software after a demonstration by the database authority officials in November last year.

“During the demonstration of the software, the technical capabilities and working of the software were examined. The software would be used in future balloting of plots to ensure transparency in the process,” the spokesperson added.

The civic agency is expected to use the software to hold computerised balloting of some 315 plots at Park Enclave-II. The balloting will be held in the second week of February.

According to an agreement signed recently between the two organisations, the database authority will also collaborate with the civic agency in computerising its land record.

Sajid said that the new software will help curtail corrupt practices rampant at the agency, which had in the past been accused of allotting lucrative plots to influential people by rigging the ballot using CDA’s in-house system.

He said the latest software would replace the system currently in use, which was developed by the agency’s IT department.

In the past, many people had expressed their reservations over transparency in balloting of plots by the agency. The civic agency, therefore, contacted NADRA for the provision of the software to address the issue of rigging in the allotment of plots.

In 2011, the CDA was accused of rigging the balloting of plots at Park Enclave-I.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had also initiated an inquiry into the issue. A senior official of the CDA’s information technology department in his statement to NAB had alleged that then CDA chairman had forced its IT department to rig the ballot.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st,  2016.