\nSLAMABAD, April 3: The drive launched by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on the directive of the Supreme Court to reclaim 20,000 acres of state land now in illegal occupation is going nowhere. Lack of coordination between the CDA\u2019s two wings \u2013 estate and planning \u2013 is said to be the main reason behind the drive\u2019s failure. Officials say the CDA started the drive without realising that it had not paid compensation to the original landholders. \u201cThe estate management wing has not paid compensation to landholders in different areas and dormant residential sectors. They resist when the staff of the planning wing go to them to take possession of the land,\u201d said director general planning, Sarwar Sandhu.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe are facing an embarrassing situation. When we send our enforcement or anti-encroachment teams for acquiring land, the landholders complain that they have not received cash and other compensation due to them against their lands.\u201dStill, the official claimed that the CDA had taken possession of some 12,000 acres of land in different areas of the capital, calling it \u2018a good achievement\u2019. A CDA source said most of the land acquired by the CDA during the current drive was \u2018agricultural\u2019 and no \u2018concrete structures\u2019 was built there. \u201cIt is easy to get possession of open and free-of-encumbrance land,\u201d the source said, adding that the hard task was to reclaim the land where the people have built houses.\n<\/p>\n
\nOn February 4 this year, the Supreme Court gave the authority the gigantic task of reclaiming 20,000 acres state land, worth billions of rupees, which is said to be under illegal possession in different areas in Islamabad. The areas beset by encroachments where the CDA has so far not reached include sectors F-12, G-12, D-13, D-11, F-14 and some land in D-12. Tahir Shamshad, CDA\u2019s member planning, agreed about lack of coordination with the estate management wing. But as he has recently got the additional charge of member estate, he hoped \u201cthere will be no issue of lack of coordination\u201d in the drive against encroachments and getting the land back.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe official said he was regularly checking the performance of enforcement directorate during the \u2018land acquisition drive\u2019. \u201cWe are now using software for daily updates on land possession,\u201d he said. A number of drives launched in the past against encroachers in the capital have fizzled out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nSLAMABAD, April 3: The drive launched by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on the directive of the Supreme Court to reclaim 20,000 acres<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"persona":[],"class_list":["post-2852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n