Who is to blame for housing violations?

The Senate’s standing committee criticised the performance of the CDA and its monitoring of housing societies.

ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s standing committee on cabinet secretariat criticised the performance of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and its monitoring of housing societies.

The standing committee had earlier ordered CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi to keep a close eye on housing societies and point out activities which violated the CDA byelaws.

Senator Shahid Hassan Bugti, chairman of committee, said that CDA and housing societies were deceiving people because of which people had lost billions of rupees in the housing sector.

He said that CDA officials were not properly monitoring the activities of such housing societies.

He added that the committee had pointed out CDA negligence and housing societies. The committee’s meeting was attended by CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Amer Ali Ahmed and representatives of various housing societies.

Stressing the need to follow rules and regulations, housing societies were ordered to make a list of their plots and members, copies of which were to be sent to the CDA and the standing committee.

He claimed that the CDA had not been paying attention to ensure that societies were following the layout plan and predicted another housing scandal if their attitude did not change.

The CDA chairman claimed that the authority had taken concrete measures to end malpractices by these societies.

The authority had so far approved the layout plan of 27 housing societies in Islamabad. However, an increasing number of complaints against these societies forced CDA to introduce its own housing schemes in collaboration with the private sector.

Elahi held a meeting at the Planning Wing Directorate CDA in this regard. The meeting identified serious irregularities in a number of housing schemes ranging from layout violations to building on land that was reserved for public amenities like parks, schools and colleges, mosques and community centres. Ramzan Sajid, spokesperson CDA, said that it was decided that the irregularities would not only be publicised in the media but stern legal action would be taken against the violators.

According to the plan, the private sector will be provided land in Zone III and Zone IV, which will be developed by CDA using its own resources.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2010.