Illegal construction detected in cantonment areas

Four building checkers suspended earlier for ignoring unauthorised structures

RAWALPINDI: A pictorial report has revealed that around 200 illegal buildings are present in five wards of cantonment boards.

The report has disclosed alleged collusion of building control cell and field staff in issuing permit to a huge number of illegal constructions in the jurisdiction of Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB).

The powerful people within building control cell had started business in order to earn unfair money while the practice has caused a loss of billions of rupees to RCB.

According to sources, a number of commercial and residential buildings have been constructed without approved building plans in the areas of RCB wards one, three, seven, 10 and 10-A including Shehzad Lane, Saham, Misryal Road, Hamza Colony, Dhok Gujran, Officers Friends Colony, British Colony, Baraf Khana Chowk, Dhok Sayedan, Peoples Colony, and Gwalmandi Saddar.

RCB issues notices to 20 property owners for illegal construction

RCB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sibtain Raza had announced zero tolerance policy for illegal constructions.

In this regard, RCB Spokesperson Qaiser Mehmood told the Express Tribune that a comprehensive policy was being devised to eliminate trend of illegal commercial and residential constructions.

The policy would be enforced soon after approval from related authority, he added.

He assured that a stringent action would be taken against cantonment officials which were involved in illegitimate practices. He added that action was underway against four building checkers who were suspended earlier for the same reason.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2019.