April 04, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1428

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FAISALABAD, April 3: The Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company seems to have been quarrelling with its tools as it has allegedly blamed some stakeholders one of who had expired many years ago for thwarting the projects assigned to it.

The FIEDMC had been entrusted with the task of establishing Value Addition City, M-3 Industrial Estate and Garment City — three important projects costing billion of rupees. It had been established by the Punjab government on the basis of public-private partnership to achieve well-planned and rapid industrialisation.

Sources said the FIEDMC filed a report to the district government on Feb 9 this year alleging that some farmers who had sold out their land had been creating problems for the contractors in construction work. The report mentioned the names of Khalid Cheema, Akbar Ali, Haji Muhammad, Nazir, Irfan Cheema, Akhtar Cheema and Basir Ahmad.

After receiving complaint, District Officer (Revenue) Usman Ali constituted a committee, comprising Chak Jhumra Town Nazim Fawad Cheema, FIEDMC representative Riaz Gill, KARCON contractors, lumbardars of the relevant villages and Chak Jhumra tehsildar, to inquire into the matter.

The team found that one of the persons named above, Nazir, a resident of Chak 159-RB, had died many years ago, lending credence to the fact that the company had raised up the issue to cover up its lethargy.

All other people the investigators contacted denied having any reservations and creating problems.

A report in this regard has been submitted by the land acquisition collector to the authority concerned in response to complaints forwarded by the company to the government.

An officer told Dawn on the request of anonymity that actually the company was beyond its schedule given by the Punjab government. The company brains were holding the farmers responsible for creating hurdles in the construction work. “How is it possible that any deceased person can pose problems for the FIEDMC? he asked.

The revenue department had also mentioned in its report that KARCON contractors had asked the farmers to create hindrance in their work by growing crops on their land. It suggested that the FIEDMC should be asked to probe the matter and give transparent picture of the facts before approaching the government.

The revenue department authorities claim that they have repeatedly been asking the FIEDMC to provide them a list of those landowners whose land was falling on the arterial road and who have not been made the payment so that they could be contacted either through registered post or “Mushtari Mundi” to facilitate the contractors. But till date no such list has been provided, according to report.

The report read: “The contractor KARCON and all its sub-contractors lack will to complete their work and stop the work if any villager confronts them.”

FIEDMC chief operating officer Ahmad Raza Siddique told Dawn that the company had constantly been facing problems from the people who had not been paid for their land. He denied that the company was not following schedule or it mentioned the name of a deceased in the list.

“We do have complaints against those who are creating problems for us because we sincerely want to complete mega projects,” he said.