Provision of basic facilities and road infrastructure to connect areas with cities. PHOTO: PPI
KARACHI: In order to merge katchi abadis with cities and change the lifestyle of their residents, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has announced the provision of basic facilities, such as road infrastructure, to 100 katchi abadis established across Sindh.
He made this decision during a meeting on katchi abadis at CM House on Thursday. The secretary of the Sindh Katchi Abadies Authority (SKAA), Dr Nawaz Shaikh, said that there are 1,409 katchi abadis stretching over 25,944 acres of land in the province, of which 948 have been notified, 344 are un-notified and 117 are established on federal government’s land. He added that so far the mutation of 80 katchi abadis’ land has been done, while the joint demarcation of only 227 abadis has been carried out.
Talking about the 129 katchi abadis established on federal government’s land, he said 80 of them are on Pakistan Railways land, 10 on defence land, 29 on Evacuee Trust Property Board land and one on the Water and Power Development Authority’s land, among others. Dr Shaikh added that 82 abadis are located on the land of different provincial departments, such as 29 on Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) land, eight on SITE land, one on jail land and 18 on irrigation department land. He also said that Karachi has 564 katchi abadis, of which 56 are located in hazardous areas such as near nullahs.
Dr Shaikh said of Hyderabad division’s 417 katchi abadis, 203 are located in Hyderabad city, 28 in Dadu, 45 in Badin, 46 in Thatta, 15 in Tando Allahyar, nine in Tando Mohammad Khan, 20 in Matiari, 21 in Jamshoro and 30 in Sujawal. Out of 417, only 200 katchi abadis have been notified while 217 still await notification. The case of 117 abadis has been taken up for regularisation.
The SKAA secretary said that the criteria for regularisation of a katchi abadi are that the settlement should have been made on or before March 23, 1985, and must have at least 40 dwelling units.
Taking action
Shah ordered the chief secretary to constitute a committee with Board of Revenue senior member Rizwan Memon, Dr Shaikh and local government secretary Baqaullah Unar as its members. The committee will examine the demarcation cases and finalise the matter within 30 days.
Shah also directed the SKAA secretary to prepare a plan to upgrade 100 katchi abadis by providing them with basic facilities and road infrastructure. Explaining the criteria of the abadis to be upgraded, he said they must be notified with clear boundaries and cleared of all kinds of litigation. He said that he was keen to provide them good facilities by changing their lifestyle.
He directed Memon to look after government land properly. “New settlements on government lands will be considered encroachments and the SHOs concerned will be held responsible for them,” he warned.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 14th, 2016.
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