KARACHI, May 15: The Sindh government has suffered a loss of about Rs188 billion over a certain period at the hands of land-grabbers who are instrumental in getting state land populated illegally to form almost 1,300 kutchi abadis.

Furthermore, losses to the tune of millions of rupees are caused to the exchequer annually due to embezzlement by departmental functionaries who provide water, power and other utility services to those living in the unauthorized slums and would not cover them as legal consumers.

In an official communication to the provincial government, the Sindh Kutchi Abadis Authority (SKAA) has stated that out of a total of 1,293 kutchi abadis in Sindh, 570 have been upgraded and the cases of 225 colonies are pending a no-objection certificate (NOC) from different agencies having claims on their lands.

This information has been passed on to the provincial government in response to a letter seeking progress on the prime minister's initiative, titled 'Housing for all', announced by Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali last year. The progress is being regarded by the concerned quarters as very slow.

The Authority has, however, maintained that the work for the granting of proprietary rights was in full swing throughout the province in terms of regularizing and upgrading the pre-1985 kutchi abadis.

The kutchi abadis in Karachi have sprung up over the years. Though most of their inhabitants are from the local working class, a big number of other families belongs to the interior parts of the province as they come over here in search of work - labour, cooking, vending, etc.

The lands, housing kutchi abadis usually are encroached upon by these families and turn into fast expanding slums with the passage of time. The continuing process of this sort of encroachment brings about 1,000 acres of the city's land under the unauthorized occupation of such families.

According to the SKAA, each new settlement means an estimated loss of Rs300 million in terms of land-grabbing only. The additional losses include non-payment of rent, water, power and other utilities pertaining to these housing units as the 'fees' are pocketed by the 'land mafia' and thus causes huge losses in revenues to the exchequer, the Authority says.

At a recent workshop on the subject, it was recommended that all land-owning agencies be asked to prepare entire portfolio of their respective lands specifying location of encroachments on these lands and pin-pointing the pre- and post-1985 kutchi abadis. These abadis include settlements which have emerged on the lands belonging to different federal and provincial departments.

A simple procedure is being followed for granting lease-hold rights to dwellers of the notified abadis.

As the department has mentioned, there are 1,293 kutchi abadis in Sindh which exist before March 23, 1985, the cut-off date fixed by the government for regularization of kutchi abadis. Out of them, 1,157 were found on merit for regularization. After the issuance of the required NOCs from concerned agencies, 932 colonies had been notified as kutchi abadis.

According to sources, the regularization work for 715 colonies had been undertaken and so far 570 have been upgraded.

There are 32 colonies built on Pakistan Railways land, seven on Karachi Port Trust land, three in Defence area, 23 on ETPB land, four on PWD lands, one on T&T land, 29 on CDGK land, seven on the SITE land, 94 on Board of Revenue lands, five on irrigation department land, 18 on defunct municipalities' land and two on food department land.