700 employees live illegally in houses

CDA officials occupied official accommodations illegally, residents allotted under 'special out-of-turn reservations'.

ISLAMABAD: Around 700 employees of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) are occupying official accommodations illegally. Majority of them are occupying CDA residential units even after being retired from service, while the rest have been allotted houses out-of-turn, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The authority recently imposed a six-month ban on allotment of accommodations under general as well as for special out-of-turn reservations.

Talking to the Express Tribune, CDA Spokesperson Ramzan Sajid said the ban was imposed to ensure transparency and merit in allotment of residences to the authority’s employees.

According to sources in the CDA, the authority has not been allotting residences following the general waiting list. Last year, 400 residences were allotted to CDA employees under special out-of-turn reservations. A total of 213 houses allotted in the same period were to employees who did not even submit applications for allotment of residences.

They were allotted houses on the recommendation and references from politicians. These applicants later submitted the applications just to fulfil legal requirements, the sources added.

An official in the planning directorate, on condition of anonymity, said the authority planned to construct 4,000 houses for the employees in the city during the tenure of the former chairman Kamran Lashari.

But the plan has been “shelved due to lack of funds”.

He said that the authority will build a community centre, welfare shop, marriage hall, bachelor’s hostels and dispensaries in Alipur Farash and Bhara Kahu for CDA employees.

Director Administration, CDA, Hussain Raza Zaidi said the current houses are booked till 2016 and the authority is receiving more requests from its employees for house allotments.

He said there are hundreds of cases pending with the courts regarding the vacation and occupation of houses. Under the general waiting pool for allotment of residences, the administration has received over 4,000 requests by its employees, he said.

As per CDA records, only 2,100 houses are available for 15,000 employees, of which 13,000 employees are grade 1 to 16, while the remaining 2,000 are grade 17 to 22.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2010.