PR land: Pay rent or leave, committee says
Senate sub committee considers way to raise funds for Pakistan Railways.
LAHORE:
The sub-committee of the Senate standing committee on railways decided here on Monday to retake Pakistan Railways land from other government departments and to draw up legislation to prevent further encroachment.
The sub-committee met here under the chairmanship of Senator Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi. The senators expressed serious concern over the illegal occupation of PR land by federal and provincial government departments.
Qureshi asked railway officials to make a strategy to generate money from PR land to ease the financial crunch on the state-owned train company. He was informed that around 1,500 acres of railways land was under the control of military organisations. He asked railway officials to get government or state institutions to pay PR for use of their land.
Railways Lahore Deputy Superintendent Javed Anwar told the committee that 22.5 acres of land had been recovered from encroachers in Lahore division and more was being recovered.
Briefing the media after the meeting, Qureshi said that railways officials were always directly or indirectly involved in occupation of or encroachment on railways land. “We have asked the officials to get back the land or we will deal with the corrupt officer in accordance with the law,” he said.
He said that the federal and provincial government departments that were occupying railways land had been told to adopt the proper procedure to lease the land or to vacate it. He said the committee had directed the railways authorities to submit a detailed report in this regard within a month.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 27th, 2011.
The sub-committee of the Senate standing committee on railways decided here on Monday to retake Pakistan Railways land from other government departments and to draw up legislation to prevent further encroachment.
The sub-committee met here under the chairmanship of Senator Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi. The senators expressed serious concern over the illegal occupation of PR land by federal and provincial government departments.
Qureshi asked railway officials to make a strategy to generate money from PR land to ease the financial crunch on the state-owned train company. He was informed that around 1,500 acres of railways land was under the control of military organisations. He asked railway officials to get government or state institutions to pay PR for use of their land.
Railways Lahore Deputy Superintendent Javed Anwar told the committee that 22.5 acres of land had been recovered from encroachers in Lahore division and more was being recovered.
Briefing the media after the meeting, Qureshi said that railways officials were always directly or indirectly involved in occupation of or encroachment on railways land. “We have asked the officials to get back the land or we will deal with the corrupt officer in accordance with the law,” he said.
He said that the federal and provincial government departments that were occupying railways land had been told to adopt the proper procedure to lease the land or to vacate it. He said the committee had directed the railways authorities to submit a detailed report in this regard within a month.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 27th, 2011.