For quick completion of spadework and to start development of the first phase of the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development project, the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Authority (RUDA) has decided to recruit a team of seasoned professionals.
The authority has already initiated the recruitment process by seeking applications at 43 key positions, including a chief operating officer, a company secretary, two executive directors, a chief architect, a chief technology officer, 15 directors, a deputy director, secretary to chairman, a staff officer to chairman, a public relation officer, five computer operators, 10 drivers and three office boys.
Neither planning is completed nor development works are started but the project has already attracted negative feedback.
Residents, worker, traders and industrialists have been staging protest demonstrations against the flagship project of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government since its launch by the Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Brother of provincial minister Mian Mahmoodur Rashed and Pakistan Muslim League Functional (Punjab) General Secretary Mustafa Rasheed is leading the campaign against the project and termed it a “fraud scheme”.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan in connivance with the local and international land grabbers is trying to snatch land and properties from the poor. We will not allow the PTI government to acquire an inch of land belongs to some two-million citizens,” he stressed.
Addressing a news conference on Monday, he said there was no law in the world which can disassociate citizens from their properties.
“The government has given extraordinary powers to the RUDA to snatch properties from poor citizens but it has to pay heavily as we are committed not to surrender our basic rights,” he added.
He pointed out that the government has imposed Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act 1894 after which Section 5 will be imposed and lands will be snatched from the citizens on a through away price.
“We are not against the riverfront project but the government should limit the scope of the project to the river bed.
It should build roads on both sides of the River Ravi and promote commercial activity.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2020.
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