Metro train project: 33 compensation vouchers issued to owners, says minister

One-window centres set up to facilitate people affected by the project

LAHORE:

Compensation vouchers have been issued to 33 people whose land has been acquired for the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project, Food Minister Bilal Yasin said on Wednesday.

He said the government had decided to pay Rs2.5 million per marla to the owners of the houses who had registries for the land. “Those without registries will get Rs1 million per room. Similar compensation will be paid to the people living on Auqaf Department land. Owners who agree to remove the debris will get Rs1.2 million per marla,” he said.

The government has set itself an ambitious target of wrapping up the land acquisition process in a week.

A survey of the newly-set up One-Window Land Acquisition Camp near University of Engineering and Technology (UET) by The Express Tribune on Wednesday revealed that officials of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), the Revenue Department, the Finance Department, the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) and the Town Administration, were present there. In addition, a special counter has been set up for people who do not yet have bank accounts.

Government officials claimed that they had tried to keep the land acquisition process simple.

Talking to The Express Tribune, several claimants expressed reservations over the process. “The government has already taken over my property, but I have not yet been paid anything. They told me at the camp that I will only get paid once the documents have been verified. This, they said, could take a couple of days,” Ghulam Rasool, a resident to Baghbanpura, said.

Another claimant, Shafiq said that neither the LDA nor the government had informed them about the compensation amount they would get. “I heard from my neighbours that the government is giving Rs150,000 per marla. However, the market price in our area, near the Quaid-i-Azam Interchange, is above Rs300,000 per marla,” he said.

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Lahore president MNA Pervaiz Malik said that the government had devised a well-organised and transparent system to pay the compensation. “For the first time in the history of the country, the government has introduced a one-window operation for land acquisition. Earlier, claimants had to visit different government offices to get their claims cleared,” Malik said.

He said that it was a revolutionary project which would change the face of public transport. “It will provide a reliable, respectable and efficient public transport facility to the common man,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th,  2016.