May 07, 2007	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 19, 1428

LAHORE, May 6: The demand for submission of incumbency lists by all the nine towns of the provincial metropolis made by the City District Government Lahore has created concern among town municipal officers and town officers for planning & coordination.

Some of the town administrations are reluctant to submit the lists, fearing that the district authorities might be planning to make them scapegoat over the issue of illegal constructions and commercialisation.

The CDGL had three weeks ago directed all the nine TMAs — Wagah, Shalimar, Ravi, Aziz Bhatti, Data Ganj Bakhsh, Nishtar, Samanabad and Iqbal — to submit incumbency lists of TMOs and town officers (planning & coordination) since Aug 14, 2001 when the devolution plan was implemented.

Only Nishtar Town had submitted the list by April 30 and the same was awaited from all other TMAs, a meeting of the district authorities held last week with district nazim Mian Amer Mahmood in the chair was told.

Officials say Ravi Town also submitted its list after the meeting.

Seeing poor response from the TMAs, the district authorities have referred the matter to the local government secretary for obtaining the information.

The TMAs apprehend that the lists may be used to fix responsibility on TMOs and TOs (planning & coordination) over issues of construction of illegal buildings and unlawful commercialisation in their respective towns.

“We are neither engineers nor technical persons to properly examine building plans and point out irregularities and violations of bylaws in them. We are just looking after the affairs of towns and fixing us for any violation(s) committed by developers and plaza owners will not be justified,” one of the anxious officers told this reporter by phone.

Neither the district nazim nor the district coordination officer was available for comments, though many attempts were made to contact them.

A survey conducted by the CDGL last year had revealed that there were more than 1,100 buildings illegally constructed or commercialised on 118 city roads.