June 6, 2003	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, June 5: Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat has directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to remove encroachments from all areas outside the municipal limits of the Capital.

In a meeting with CDA Chairman Chaudhry Abdul Rauf, member Ghulam Dastagir Khan, director land Sultan Sikandar Raja and other officials in his office on Thursday, the minister ordered removal of illegal constructions along the main highways, including Kashmir Highway, I-J Principal Road and Islamabad Highway, etc.

He asked the CDA to immediately get vacated its 20,000-acre- land, which has been under adverse possession.

Sources said the authority had been directed to chalk out a comprehensive plan in this regard. However, they said most of the CDA land which fell in the periphery of the Islamabad Capital Territory could not be evacuated without the assistance of the ICT administration.

The minister also directed the ICT administration to provide support to the CDA in resolving the issue, they added. The authority was asked to make some necessary amendments to the CDA Ordinance 1960, so that strict measures could be taken against the encroachers.

An official of the CDA told Dawn that the authority’s land had been occupied in various areas of Islamabad and some of the occupants had even gone in litigation to protect themselves from any action.

He said the CDA was also making necessary amendments to its rules and regulations to check unauthorized constructions in the future.

He said the CDA’s legal consultant had been assigned the job to recommend necessary amendments in accordance with the authority’s planning wing and the ICT administration.

The CDA, he added, had completed necessary formalities for implementation of a contingency plan to remove unauthorized construction from the green areas of the service road (west) in sectors F-11 and G-11.

The official said unauthorized construction activity on either side of the GT Road within the municipal limits of Islamabad would be removed. The CDA is also preparing a plan to get vacated its land which was being used for agriculture purpose by the locals.

Cell being set up: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has formulated a new mechanism to check encroachments in both residential and commercial areas on regular basis, director of CDA’s municipal administration, Capt Mehmood (retired), said.

Talking to Dawn, the official said under the new mechanism, the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) was establishing a cell in the fire brigade department which would work round the clock.

Elaborating on the new mechanism, he said like Rescue-15 Police, a two-digit telephone number would be allocated to the cell so that people could easily lodge their complaints regarding any movable and immovable encroachment in Islamabad.

He said the names of the complainants would be kept secret if they wanted to get their names registered.

The DMA said the complainants would have the liberty to lodge complaints without mentioning their names.

“We will have no concern with the names as we are only interested in the complaint, whatever it may be,” he said.