December 12, 2001	Wednesday	Ramazan 26, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

FAISALABAD, Dec 11: A housing scheme for low-income people in Chak 238-RB has been lying uninhabited since 1998 for want of ‘external electrification’.

The housing and physical planning department commenced work on the scheme, having 1,700 three-marla plots, in 1996. Almost all the development work was completed in 1998.

The delay has not only escalated the cost of the project manifold but also damaged the completed works, including water supply and drainage system and roads. Earth worth millions of rupees had already been removed from several plots and 12 to 15 feet ditches can be seen everywhere.

Senior officials told this correspondent that usually the contracts for the electrification of housing colonies, developed by the department, were given to Wapda on a deposit work basis.

According to them, a director-general of the H&PPD had links with a private contractor — Gull Muhammad, of Sub-Line Construction Company (Pvt) Ltd. They said the electrification contract was awarded to the company against the rules of the department and an advance payment of Rs9 million was also made.

The contractor failed to complete the electrification work within the stipulated period. Whenever the H&PPD authorities asked the contractor to accelerate pace of work, he reported that wires had been stolen from the site.

Interestingly, the contractor through the department got three wire theft cases registered with the Saddar police. In one such incident, the contractor claimed Rs3 million against stolen wires from the H&PPD.

“Under clauses 60 and 61 of the contract of agreement, the H&PPD was required to cancel the contract for not completing the work within stipulated time. However, despite repeated moves by the local authorities of the H&PPD, no action was taken by the director-general against the contractor,” a senior officer told Dawn.

Operation: The federal government has reportedly decided to launch an operation against Jihadi organizations and religious bodies to stop any possible protest movement immediately after Eidul Fitr.

Sources said here on Tuesday that the interior ministry had asked the police and intelligence agencies to send detailed lists of the office-bearers and workers of the Jihadi and religious organization, especially of those who were actively taking part in anti-government movements. The leaders of these organizations would be arrested under the recently amended Anti-Terrorism Ordinance and Maintenance of Public Order.

They said stern action would also be taken against the shopkeepers who installed cash boxes in their shops for the collection of donations in the name of Jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan.

They said district police chiefs have already been directed by the IGP to depute plainclothesmen for monitoring the activities of religious leaders.

Raids would be conducted on the houses and offices of some religious organizations and dens of criminals for the arrest of ‘wanted people’ in the light of information collected from the terrorists arrested from the Pakistan-Afghan borders during US bombing on Afghanistan, they added.

The steps have been taken to stop them from launching protest movement as announced by them from the platform of Pak-Afghan Defence Council after Eidul Fitr.

SEWERAGE SYSTEM: A new sewerage system will be laid in Allama Iqbal Colony at an estimated cost of Rs3.5 million.

A Wasa spokesman said on Tuesday that from Imambargah Chowk to Tali Chowk, the sewerage lines had almost broken down.

He said under the new plan, 12,000-foot long sewerage line would be laid using nine-inch diameter pipes.

He urged the residents of the colony to pay their bills in time so that more facilities could be provided to them.