HYDERABAD: Violation of govt policy alleged: Lease conversion in Cantt areas
Bureau Report
HYDERABAD, Jan 13: The Cantonment Welfare Association has accused the director-general of Military Lands and Cantonments of violation of the government policy on conversion of old grant/cantonment code lease to regular lease.
The allegation was levelled by the leaders of the association, including MNA Ameer Ali Shah Jamote, MPA Zahid Bhurgari and former Hyderabad Cantonment Board vice-chairmen Mulla Nooruddin, while speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Tuesday.
They said that the Hyderabad cantonment was a "C" class cantonment but the HCB rates for the lease conversion of residential and commercial plots were more than that fixed by "A" class cantonment boards throughout Pakistan.
They pointed out that the existing commercial rates of the HCB were Rs7,000 per square meter but if any one had constructed a shop on his plot under the old grant lease, he was required to pay Rs14,000 per meter. Similarly, they added, the rate for residential lease was Rs3,500 which was too much.
They said that under the old grant policy, the people were invited in 1857 to construct shops and residences in the cantonment area and were given plots for this purpose.
They said that the federal government had decided in 1996 to convert the old grant lease into permanent lease and the cantonment board had authorized the people to raise buildings, recovering millions of rupees in the taxes.
They said that the issue had been raised before President General Pervez Musharraf and the defence secretary but to no avail. They deplored that notices were being issued to the residents that if they did not get their old grant lease converted into permanent lease, their properties would be confiscated.
They said that the federal government had fixed June 30 as the last date for the lease conversion but the MLC DG had changed the date to Jan 15. They demanded that the federal government should constitute a judicial commission to investigate into the matter and take legal action against those who were harassing the legal occupants of the properties.
They further demanded that the HCB authorities should be stopped from taking any action which might create a tense atmosphere. They said that according to rule 31 of the Cantonment Administration Law 1937, the Hyderabad district government should be approached to fix rates and development charges should be withdrawn.
