PESHAWAR, April 3: The provincial government has amended the NWFP Gomal Zam Project (Control and Prevention of Speculation in Land) Ordinance, 2001, to incorporate rectifications removing in-built lacunae from it, official sources told Dawn here on Saturday.

In an attempt to avoid complications and leave no room for misdeeds, the ordinance, promulgated in July 2001, introduced an across-the-board ban on mutation and transferring the right of ownership of the land within the project area for a period of 10 years, underlying strict regulatory clauses.

However, after having a second thought over the matter after the relevant clause of the ordinance thought to be problem-oriented for the farmers community, the government had recently brought about necessary amendments relaxing the rules to some extent.

The ordinance earlier read: “No person shall alienate the project land from the commencement of this ordinance until the expiry of ten years after such date as may be notified by government or the date on which water from Gomal Zam Project is made available for the irrigation of the land.”

After having a second thought over the issue, however, the government has introduced a provision for making it possible for the farmers community to mortgage their lands in favour of banks and financial institutions for obtaining loans.

The amendment, notified on Nov 20, 2001, adds at the end of the above clause that “except mortgage their land in favour of banks/financial institutions for obtaining loans.” But for this purpose, too, approval of the Board of Revenue, NWFP, would be necessary.

In this respect, the amended ordinance says: “Provided that the board of revenue may on application, if satisfied that there are sufficient grounds for doing so, permit the land to be alienated before expiry of the said period on such payment to the government and subject such conditions as it may deem fit to impose.”

Involving an estimated cost of Rs12.89 billion and to be completed in six years, the Gomal Zam Dam project, located at Khajori Kach in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas’ South Waziristan Agency, some 100km west of Dera Ismail Khan, is a multi-purpose irrigation, power generation and flood control project.

According to official estimates, the project would bring some 163,086 acres of barren land in the Tank and D. I. Khan districts under cultivation apart from generating 17.4mw electricity and would also serve the purpose of controlling flood in the Gomal River.