November 28, 2001	Wednesday	Ramazan 12, 1422

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HARIPUR, Nov 27: The seven-marla housing scheme launched by former prime minister Mohammad Khan Junejo to provide shelter to the low-income and the poor lies abandoned since 1988.

Billion of rupees from the public exchequer were spent on the acquisition of land and construction of housing units, but the much-publicised scheme could never be completed.

Haripur was one of the districts where two seven-marla residential colonies were approved to be constructed to provide shelter to the poor. What happened to this multi- billion project and how much money went down the drain, is still unknown.

Two sites, one at Kot Najibullah and the other at Pharhala, some four kilometres from the district headquarters,  were selected for the construction of theses housing units, each comprising two rooms, one kitchen and one lavatory.

For the Pharhala site, the secretary of physical planning and housing of the NWFP, acquired a 145.13-kanal piece of land for 140 residential quarters on Oct 21, 1987. At Pharhala, 40 residential units were constructed at a cost of Rs 1.5 million, while at Kot Najibullah 25 units were built to provide shelter to the poor.

When the construction of colonies were complete, the government of Junejo was dismissed and his successors never bothered to take up the project.

During the second stint of the exiled prime minister Mr Nawaz Sharif, these two housing schemes were put to auction. Some houses at the Kot Najibullah scheme were sold, while the rest were abandoned, providing a safe haven to addicts, thieves and all other kinds of ant-social elements.

Now the government has decided to allot these housing units to the needy and deserving, but the plan is said to have fallen prey to red tapism.

Federal minister for local government and rural development, Omar Asghar Khan, had directed the union councils Nazims at a public meeting here to prepare and submit to the government lists of those people who really needed these houses, but according to sources, no progress has been made towards that end so far. The people in need of housing have demanded of the government to implement the plan at the earliest.