Rural uplift: Rs130m to be spent on ‘modelling villages’ around capital

CDA board members brief standing committee on Cabinet about planned work.

ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) plans to spend around Rs130 million on 16 development projects in model villages around Islamabad.

The CDA Engineering Member Sanaullah Aman said this on Wednesday during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on the Cabinet Secretariat.

So far, only Rs27.5 million has been released by the CDA, Aman said, while adding that the projects will be completed within four to eight months.

“For now, we are focusing on rehabilitation work in these villages,” Aman said, explaining that the projects will deal with roads, drainage, sewerage and water supply.

There are eight model villages planned around Islamabad -- Nurpur Shahan, Kuri, Margalla Town, Tarlai, Shahzad Town, Farash Town, Humak and Rawal Town -- only the first three of which are within the CDA’s municipal limits, CDA Planning Member Mustafain Kazmi told the committee members.

The other five are inside the Islamabad Capital Territory, he said, while identifying why some of these villages are still without the kind of development urban Islamabad has seen.

Humak will receive the most attention in the CDA’s development plans, with Rs46 million to be spent there on five projects. Three projects will be completed in Shahzad Town at the cost of Rs18 million, according to Aman.

Farash Town, Margalla Town and Rawal Town will get Rs32 million, Rs26million and Rs12 million, respectively.

Aman said the CDA had initially devised a “stand post” water supply system for these villages, which means installing water taps over there. But now, the authority has moved towards building tube wells and a water supply network.

He said Humak has five tube wells, Margalla Town has two, Rawal Town has three, while one will be completed in Shahzad Town by December.

This is because five of these villages lie outside our municipal limits, the CDA’s municipal bylaws do not apply to them, Kazmi said. “However, the villages have still been looked after”.

“The CDA has tried to provide maximum facilities to these villages, even though we cannot charge property taxes there,” Kazmi said.

He said the civic agency had provided water, electricity and sewerage facilities to the model villages in the past.

Committee member Tariq Fazal Chaudhary, who is also the MNA for rural Islamabad, raised the issue of nonconforming use of the agro-farms around Islamabad, especially farms being used as marriage halls.

Kazmi said the deadline for the CDA’s recent notice of compliance to agro-farm owners will run out in the next four to five days. He said the CDA’s enforcement officials will take stern action against violators after the deadline, even if the farms are owned by influential individuals.

The committee was also supposed to discuss subcommittee reports on the allotment of a plot to Ilyas Cold Storage in Sector I-11/1 and the CDA-approved project for a transport system in Islamabad, but subcommittee chair Pervaiz Khan was not present at the meeting.

Meanwhile, CDA Chairman Tahir Shahbaz, who is leaving for Turkey on Thursday, did not appear at a meeting of the NA Standing Committee on the Capital Administration and Development Division on Wednesday.

Shahbaz was supposed to brief the committee members on the CDA’s development projects. Committee chair Jamshaid Ahmad Dasti ordered the committee secretary to summon the CDA chairman for the next meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2012.