RDA CEO takes notice of illegal constructions, orders inspection

Authority seals warehouse over non-payment of commercial fee

RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sibtain Raza has taken strict notice of illegal residential and commercial constructions in the vicinity.

For this purpose, the CEO has instructed the chief engineer to launch an inspection to identify illegal buildings.

In line with this, Chief Engineer Ghulam Abbas, has issued a schedule for inspection in all 10 wards after instructions from the CEO.

During the inspection, the teams under the chief engineer would examine building plans of infrastructures.

Moreover, a report against the engineer building control cell and related building checker would be sent to the CEO in case related documents are unavailable.

According to the sources, a report against an increasing number of illegal constructions in cantonment boards was sent to the CEO after which he took strict notice and directed related officials to implement a zero tolerance policy on the issue.

Subsequently, the CEO was also informed of insufficient building checkers in the board. Furthermore, it was disclosed that most of the building checkers were deployed based on either favoritism or a political basis.

Warehouse sealed

The RDA has sealed a company’s warehouse due to non-payment of commercial fee at Islamabad International Airport (IIA).

The action was taken by a team comprising the Building Control Wing Assistant Director Atif Mehmood, Building Superintendent Nadeem Jamal and area inspector.

The same warehouse was sealed on the same reasons a few months earlier too but the owners had assured the related authorities that they would move to another place.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2019.