April 27, 2007	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 09, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, April 26: Computerisation of the policing system in the city is in progress and would be completed by September, the government told the National Assembly on Thursday.

Minister of State for Interior Zafar Iqbal Waraich informed the House during the question hour that police headquarters and police stations had been networked. Eighty per cent of the hardware was in place while 20 per cent of the software had also been developed.

The computerisation project was among the development projects approved by the prime minister for the federal capital to be completed in three years. It was meant to centralise the daily data of the police stations for senior police officers to monitor their performance.

The minister said eight of the 22 projects marked for this year were lagging behind their schedule and the government has asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to accelerate the pace of work on them.

He said the construction of Arts and Crafts village in Islamabad will be completed by the end of the current year, at a cost of Rs 112.549 million.

A traffic interchange at Zero Point was scheduled to be constructed by the end of June but it has not yet even begun.

Answering a question, the minister said the 6,000 square yards of land in F-9 park was leased to Siza Foods (Pvt) Limited at the rate of Rs316,250 per month or five per cent of its gross sales, whichever is higher. A 10 per cent increase per annum will be made in the rent.

The firm will develop a public park on five acres around its outlet, pay all taxes, impositions, dues and duties payable in respect of its principal, the international McDonald’s food chain, on the leased property, the minister said spelling out the terms of the lease.

Responding to another question, he denied reports that the drinking water supplied by CDA to Islamabad residents was not treated in accordance with the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. Water samples collected from various sectors last September/October tested satisfactory, he asserted.

Though he admitted that “raw water from a few tubewells was not up to the mark,” the minister rejected as untrue a report which said the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources found the drinking water, being supplied through 180 tubewells in Islamabad, contaminated with sewerage water. He said CDA supplied water to its consumers after proper disinfection.

While discussing the city’s transport problems, the minister opposed the induction of auto rickshaws in Islamabad, saying they would cause air and noise pollution and hurt the serenity of the city.

About the housing problem, he said there was no immediate plan to construct more flats in sector G-6 by the CDA. However people whose lands were acquired by the CDA were allotted seven plots for agro farming in the orchard scheme during 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. An eighth plot was allotted through an open auction.

The minister said there was no proposal under consideration of the Islamabad administration or the Ministry of Interior to prescribe a procedure for leasing out private accommodation in Islamabad to foreigners, especially those belonging to African countries.

Responding to a question, he promised that green belts in Islamabad will not be allowed to be used for commercial purposes. But green belts had been rented out to various organisations in Islamabad for parking purposes.

In the process “not a single branch of any tree had been cut,” he said, asserting that three times more saplings had been planted to compensate for the loss of trees for developmental work involving construction of roads in Islamabad.