ISLAMABAD: CDA spends Rs640m more on buildings’ maintenance
By Our Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Feb 1: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) bears expenditure of Rs1.4 billion per year for maintaining government buildings, an official of the authority’s revenue directorate told Dawn on Saturday.
The authority, he said, utilized the amount from its own exchequer as the grant released by the government for the maintenance of government buildings was insufficient.
The government releases Rs400 million for this purpose under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). He said the government already owed Rs5 billion to the CDA, which the authority had spent on construction and maintenance of official buildings.
“The authority has reminded the government a number of times for the release of the outstanding dues, but the latter did not respond. However, the expenditure of government buildings’ maintenance is going up every year due to insufficient allocation,” the official said.
The amount which the CDA has to recover from the government is stated to be equal to the CDA’s annual budget. “If the government releases the amount, various pending development projects could be commissioned and the deteriorating condition of roads, street and street lights in the capital can be improved,” the official said.
Earlier, the government had decided to handover the charge of maintenance of government building to Public Works Department (PWD), but due to several reasons, the CDA was asked to continue this service, he added.
Under the CDA Ordinance-1960, the authority has been empowered to develop and maintain all government buildings in the federal capital, thus the ordinance will have to be changed if the maintenance of government buildings is handed over to the PWD, the official said.
The CDA is currently maintaining about 1,500 government houses and other buildings, including the Chief Executive Secretariat, parliament house building, supreme court building, Kashmir House, Foreign Office, Balochistan House, Sindh House, Punjab House, Frontier House, Pak-Secretariat, Prime Minister House, chief executive commission, cabinet building, police station Pak-secretariat, building of the Export Advisory Cell, National Library, communication building bock-B (Pak-secretariat), PAEC K. Block, Ghazi Ilumuddin Hostel, women officer hostel, NARC main complex, officer rest house Foreign Office, Convention Centre, Foreign Training Academy F-5, Pak- Secretariat Phase I-II, Parliament Lodges, MNA hostel, Aiwan-i- Sadr, Faisal Mosque etc.
Church construcion: The committee of the Emmanuel Church has asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to allow construction of the church on a piece of land allotted by the authority in G-8/2 sector.
In a letter sent to the CDA chairman, the church’s poster, Nazir Masih, said the land, measuring 2,222.22 sq yards, was allotted to the committee for the construction of the church on October 2002. However, the possession of the land was taken after obtaining permission from the CDA on October 30, 2002.
“We had planned to start the construction work of Emmanuel Church on the allocated land, but, due to some reasons, we could not do so,” the poster said.
Meanwhile, the church committee met the CDA’s member planning, Maqbool Elahi, who informed the committee that the authority wanted to provide an alternative land for the construction of the church and the previously allotted land had to be withdrawn, he said.
“This news was shocking for us as we had made arrangements for the construction of the church on the allotted land in G-8/2 sector,” Poster Masih added.
He said some people, living in the adjacent PARC Colony, were trying to build a mosque on the land allotted for the church and had started offering prayers there without any shelter.
The founder of the church requested the CDA chairman to convene a meeting of Muslim clerics and the elite of the area in order to inform them that no cinema house, bar or dancing hall was being built on the land, but a church.
“We are a peace-loving community and will not cause any disturbance to our Muslim brethren,” the poster said.
He demanded of the CDA chairman to resolve the issue and give a go ahead signal to the church committee for the construction of the church.
