Action on encroachment occupied land

CDA gears up for massive operation day after IHC’s directives

ISLAMABAD:

A day after the high court in the federal capital territory directed its apex civic authority to recover illegally occupied state land in the federal capital, the body sprung into action on Friday, issuing notices and demolishing illegal structures.

In a statement issued by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Friday, a spokesperson for the authority said that it had completed preparations for launching a grand operation against land grabbers and encroachers. Despite being a public holiday, the official said that they had issued notices to illegal occupiers of state land in Jabba Tilli, Bheka Sayedan, Saidpur and other areas of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

“The CDA had allotted plots in Bheka Sayedan, but could not provide possession so far as the land mafia had illegally built houses in the area,” the spokesperson said, adding that the authority has issued notices to the occupants of these houses and structures to voluntarily vacate them and demolish the illegal structures otherwise the authority will be forced to demolish them. Moreover, CDA’s anti-encroachment cell demolished two illegally-built rooms on IJP road, five under-construction rooms in Sector C-16, three under-construction boundary walls in Saidpur, two damp-proof courses and two unauthorised rooms and a grill in Bari Imam.

A spokesperson further stated that encroachment on roads in Sectors G-7 and G-8 have also been removed in line with court orders. Similarly, a mega anti-encroachment operation was conducted at Khanna Pull and five truckloads worth of goods were confiscated. In collaboration with the Building Control Section (BCS) of the authority, two buildings were sealed in the industrial areas of Sectors I-9 and I-10 for violating building by-laws.

Moreover, illegally-constructed rooms in Muslim Colony were also demolished. Further, the authority, together with the ICT Administration jointly conducted an operation against encroachments in the Malpur area under the supervision of Enforcement director-general and retrieved 1,600 kanals of forest land from the clutches of the land mafia. Heavy machinery from the machine pool organisation (MPO) department of the CDA, along with officials of the anti-encroachment department participated in the operation. CDA said that their teams faced resistance from members of the land mafia during the operation.

However, police present on the scene tackled them and lodged cases against them. In a verdict against a private housing scheme in the city on Thursday, a single-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had directed the CDA and the ICT deputy commissioner to initiate a process of demarcating land which has been acquired by the state and retrieve any such land which may be either in the illegal possession of any private person. Further, the court had held the secretary of the federal interior ministry, the ICT chief commissioner and the Inspector General of Islamabad Police, jointly and severally, if the phenomenon of land grabbing and illegal dispossession continues within the limits of Islamabad.