Better coordination: CDA wants counters at police stations

Dedicated counters will provide police cover to authority during anti-encroachment drives.

ISLAMABAD: The civic agency has sought setting up of dedicated counters at all police stations to better coordination to deal with land grabbers.

“The CDA has been endeavouring to retrieve its land worth billions of rupees under adverse possession,” reads a letter written by the civic agency to the Chief Commissioner seeking his nod for establishing the counters.

The civic agency estimates that the worth of land grabbed by influentials and mafia in various parts of the capital is approximately Rs42 billion.

The CDA has also writen that anti-encroachment drives in the past were resisted by land grabbers, who had used force against the authority’s staff and damaged machinery and equipment. The agency cited instances where members of different groups had retaliated with weapons and injured civic agency staffers during these drives.

The authority proposes that a ‘CDA counter’ be set up at every police station, dedicated to dealing with encroachment-related matters.

The counter will also be responsible for providing police cover to the CDA whenever the agency conducts anti-encroachment drives within the jurisdiction of any police station.

“The CDA counter will confine its operations and investigations to CDA-related complaints, FIRs and their effective pursuance on relevant forums,” the letter suggests.

It further states that all such counters will submit monthly progress reports to the authority’s chairman and the office of the chief commissioner.

The CDA spokesperson Ramzan Sajid confirmed the development, saying the move was aimed at developing better coordination between the civic agency and the city administration on the issue of encroachments.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2016.