Daducha Dam land acquisition questioned
The provincial government has been asked to file a reply on the amount paid for acquiring land to build the Daducha Dam on.
The directions were issued on Friday by a single-member bench of the Lahore High Court-Rawalpindi Bench (LHC-RB), comprising Justice Muzammil Akhtar Shabbir, as it heard a petition challenging the acquisition of agricultural land for the dam apart from paying cheap rates paid for them.
Sardar Abdul Raziq, who is representing petitioners Chaudhry Naseer and others, said that his clients own more than 220 kanals of agricultural land in Mouza Dadhar Mirza. He added that they have been cultivating these lands for decades.
Raziq contended that the government was illegally acquiring thousands of kanals of land in different parts of Rawalpindi for the construction of the Daducha Dam even though legally the government was barred from acquiring agricultural land.
Moreover, the lawyer contended the government was discriminating with them since it had decided to pay Rs5 million per Kanal to landowners of private housing estates and an industrial estate in the area while it had decided to provide only Rs75,000 per Kanal for the lands of the petitioners.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 29th, 2020.