CDA barred from acquiring land

Lahore High Court seeks replies from government functionaries on April 10

RAWALPINDI:

The Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench judge Justice Mirza Waqas Rauf on Thursday barred the Capital Development Authority (CDA) from acquiring 1,200-kanal of land on Chak Belli Road at Losar in the suburb of Rawalpindi for dumping capital’s waste.

The court issued the directives on petitions challenging the Rawalpindi administration’s notification, allowing the CDA to acquire the land and dump the capital’s waste at Losar.

Earlier, the CDA had to postpone the public hearing seeking objections regarding the dumping of the capital’s waste at Losar after the Punjab Environment Protection Department objected to the hurriedly called public debate.

Two weeks back, the Rawalpindi administration allocated 1,200-kanal of land to the CDA in Mauza Losar to dump the capital’s waste in violation of the court order. Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Hasan Waqar Cheema through a notification had given formal permission to the CDA to dump all garbage and harmful hospital waste from Islamabad at the Losar dumping site.

The high court accepted six petitions filed in this regard for hearing and issued notices to the CDA chairman, the Islamabad chief commissioner, the Rawalpindi commissioner and deputy commissioner and the Punjab government seeking their replies on April 10.

The court also summoned the head of the Rawalpindi Solid Waste Management Company at the next hearing. The petitions have been filed by three brick kiln owners and four citizens of the neighbourhood.

In the petitions, brick kiln owners Irfan and locals have taken the plea that there was already a waste dumping ground spread over 1,200-kanal at Losar to dump Rawalpindi’s waste. They said that the high court had ordered the removal of the existing dumping site.

The petitioners said that on the court order, the Rawalpindi Solid Waste Management Company decided to move the dumping site to Mandira Road and the process of acquiring 1,400-kanal was also started.

They said that instead of removing the existing dumping site, the Rawalpindi administration has allowd the CDA to acquire 1,200-kanal to dump the capital’s waste.

The petitioners said that Islamabad is a separate district and it has plenty of unused land where it can dump the waste.

They argued that garbage from another district cannot be allowed to be dumped in Rawalpindi.

They said that the existing dumping ground has already been declared illegal by the court, issuing an order to shift it to Mandira Road.

They said that the construction of dumping grounds on 2,400-kanal for both Rawalpindi and Islamabad will further increase infectious diseases including throat, ear, stomach and eye ailments in the entire area.

They said that the process of constructing a new dumping ground should be declared illegal and according to the court decision, the existing dumping ground of Rawalpindi should also be ordered to be shifted immediately.

The petitioners said that about 14 brick kilns will be affected if the dumping site was allowed to be constructed and the closure of these kilns will increase unemployment.

The LHC’s Rawalpindi bench had ordered to remove the dumping site, where waste from Rawalpindi is already being dumped, to Mandra–Chakwal Road, where the Rawalpindi administration had acquired 1,200-kanal of land.

Instead of moving the waste dumping site to Mandra–Chakwal Road, the admin has not only allowed the CDA to dispose of waste at Losar but also decided to dump the waste of the garrison city at the same location.

The PTI government had approved removing the dumping ground spreading on 1,250-kanal at Losar and moving it to Mandra–Chakwal Road. However, the current Rawalpindi administration decided against the order of the high court and allowed the CDA to dump the capital’s waste at the current dumping site.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2023.