Compensation for land: Claimants find faults with acquisition process

Occupants of disputed properties say they’ve received no info about procedure devised for such properties


Imran Adnan February 12, 2016
Construction site of Orange Line Metro Train. PHOTO: NNI

LAHORE: Scores of families living in areas marked for acquisition for the Orange Line Metro Train (OMLT) project have complained of shortcomings in the land acquisition process. The most frequently cited complaints are lack of information about procedure devised by the project team to deal with disputed properties, inability of facilitation camp staff to deal with cases involving transfer of ownership and harassment by police.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Allah Ditta said he and his brothers had been fighting a court case for several years over the ownership of a six-marla house in Salamatpura where he lived with his wife and children. He said the house was located on land marked for acquisition for the metro train.

Ditta said he had yet to get information about the procedure devised by the project team to deal with such properties. He said he had visited a facilitation camp near the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) but no one could respond to his query. “The matter has been in court for many years. I’m trying to find out how the government intends to settle such disputes,” he says.

Muhammad Saleem said that he could submit an application for transfer of property in his name on his third visit to the facilitation camp. Earlier, he said, the LDA officials had raised several objections to his application and turned him away.

Saleem said he and his siblings had been living in the house near Samnabad Mor since their birth. He said the house had been owned by their father who passed away in 2011. “We’re four brothers and a sister. We’ve a limited income so we decided that there was no need to get the property transferred in our names,” he said. Saleem said he and his family had temporarily moved to an uncle’s house. He said income from a small shop he ran in front of the house had provided for him and his family. The shop had been closed down by the LDA, he said. Several Parachute Colony residents complained that the police were harassing them to vacate their houses. They said the police action was in contempt of court which had issued a stay order on the properties in the colony. A resident alleged that Misri Shah SHO Malik Shabbir Awan had visited the colony with a police team last week and asked him to vacate the house on his own or get ready for forced eviction.  Speaking to The Tribune, the SHO dismissed the suggestion that any resident had been harassed by police. He said the police had only been accompanying the Lahore Development Authority officials during their visits to the area for security purposes. “We have nothing to do with land acquisition,” he said.

On disputed properties, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khwaja Ahmad Hassaan told The Tribune such properties were mostly located along the northern segment of the track. He said that in such cases the government could not pay compensation to anyone till the disputes were pending hearings in the court. He suggested that disputants could consider out-of-court settlements if they wanted to expedite payment of compensation.

For claims involving transfer of ownership, Hassaan said a camp had been set up specifically for the purpose near the UET. He said all revenue officials concerned were required to be present at the camp during work hours to process such cases.

Hassaan said land acquisition and payment of compensation were underway without any delay. He said the government had paid Rs5.75 billion in compensation so far.

The large number of visitors at the facilitation camps showed that people were satisfied with the compensation package, he said. “We’re even processing compensation claims of people who don’t have any proof of ownership,” he said.  Hassaan said the government was compensating affected families at higher than the market value of their properties. He said the compensation package included land price, cost of structure, a goodwill payment only for commercial properties and a relocation payment.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13th, 2016.

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