KARACHI, Feb 8: The chief minister's adviser on local government and katchi abadis, Wasim Akhtar, on Tuesday kicked off the process of issuing 99-year lease to the dwellers of 14 katchi abadis which fall under the jurisdiction of Sindh katchi Abadis Authority.

Briefing newsmen about the plans chalked out by the authority for giving proprietary rights to the inhabitants of the katchi abadis, he said that the lease awarding week had been commenced in Karachi and a similar exercise would be undertaken in katchi abadis of other parts of the province so that poor people residing in such localities could get the proprietary rights of their housing units.

Unfolding the details of 14 katchi abadis where lease awarding process would be carried out during the week, Wasim Akhtar said that in all 15,160 units would get ownership rights in these localities after getting 99-year lease, the number of dwellers to benefit was over 88,000 while the amount to be generated under the head of lease money would be around Rs95.79 million.

He said that with a view to motivate the dwellers of katchi abadis to become proprietor of their units by getting lease documents, SKAA officials would make door-to-door contacts, measure units, complete lease application, prepare challans of the requisite lease charges. Besides, the officials would be available in the evenings to facilitate those seeking lease of their units.

The adviser said that an awareness campaign regarding the procedure of lease documentation was being launched through newspapers and local TV channels, especially designed for the dwellers of katchi abadis.

Highlighting the salient features of the leases being awarded in katchi abadis, Mr Akhtar said that widows, orphans and disabled persons residing in katchi Abadis would be charged less than the prescribed lease fee so that this segment of society might not face difficulty in getting proprietary rights of their units.

He said that all those katchi abadis which were being regularized after receiving lease money would later be handed over to local councils concerned which would be responsible to check that such localities were not being extended.

Asked if the lease charges of the katchi abadis which fall under the jurisdiction of the SKAA are higher than those under the control of city government, the adviser replied in 'affirmative', saying that he did not know whether the reduced lease charges being offered by the city government had been approved by the city council or not.

When told that the City Council had already reduced the lease charges to a minimum Rs25 per square yard through a resolution, the adviser said that he did not know about this because neither the provincial local government department nor the local government commission had received such a resolution so far although it was obligatory upon the city government to intimate both the local government department and local government commission about all those resolutions which were passed at the City Council.

To another query, he said that if the city government could issue lease documents which did not come under its purview, he said "absolutely not". "As a matter of fact the SKAA came into being in the wake of Sindh katchi Abadis Act, 1987, had given certain number of katchi abadis to the defunct KMC and if the city government was found issuing lease in the katchi abadis which do not come under its control, the SKAA might retake control of such abadis," he added.

Accusing the city government of remaining idle for over three-and-a-half years, he said that it was all of a sudden that on the eve of ensuing local government elections, the city government had awarded Rs2 billion contracts of different development works and as such the next city government would have a liability of such a huge amount.

Earlier, SKAA's director-general Mir Nasir Abbas told newsmen that the lease granting works were being carried out only in those katchi abadis which were established prior to March 23, 1985 and had been categorized as regularizable.