June 22, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 17, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 21: The city managers have decided to develop a “Land Bank” to keep record of its unutilised plots valued at trillions of rupees which the all powerful land grabbers eye constantly.

“The database will have up-to-date record of both commercial and residential plots in each sector,” officials in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) told Dawn on Saturday.

The officials, who requested anonymity, said all the vacant plots in the city would be fenced, while land in rural zones would be marked by setting up concrete posts around it.

Though the civic authority is making efforts to protect its precious land from illegal occupation, the menace is on the rise these days.

The officials said the CDA high-ups were quite upset about land grabbing, and believed that “it could not be done without some help from the CDA staff.”

A senior CDA official, who wished not to be named, said the entire effort to save the state land would prove futile unless the authority’s enforcement directorate acted “properly”.

Despite obtaining resources, a fleet of vehicles, police squad and manpower, the enforcement directorate has failed to come up with the desired results, the official said.

The problem of land grabbing in Islamabad is not confined to the rural areas only, as it is being done by influential people even in posh residential neighbourhoods.

One of such examples is illegal occupation of a huge piece of land in Sector F-8 by a politician affiliated with the PML-Q, who had encroached the area in front of his house.

Rampant encroachment suggests that the CDA is helpless to take any action.

It has also been observed that illegal constructions were underway on land which the CDA wants to acquire for the development of new sectors.

The worst examples are G-12 and F-12 where not hundreds but thousands of residential and commercial units have been established and the number is increasing with each passing day.

The problem of land grabbing is also prevalent in villages on the fringes of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

“Due to the confusion over territorial jurisdiction, the encroachers sometimes get approval from Rawalpindi administration and sometimes from ICT administration by presenting forged documents,” a CDA official said.

According to the local administration, some 52 villages fell on the boundary between Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

The CDA chief has also floated a proposal that a joint action committee comprising officials of the CDA and the local administration should be formed to address the issues of illegal construction and encroachment of state land.