PESHAWAR: The owners of marble factories have expressed concern over delay in allotment of plots to the investors at Risalpur Marble City and demanded of the government to take action against Pakistan Stone Development Company for not fulfilling its responsibilities in this regard.

Talking to journalists here on Thursday, Investors Action Committee chairman Mohammad Ilyas said that Pakistan Stone Development Company (PASDEC).was using delaying tactics in allotment of plots to the investors.

He said that they would hold protest outside the office of industries secretary if the investors of marble city were not given possession of their plots at the earliest.

“We have paid millions of rupees for the plots but the investors are given no response in this regard,” Mr Ilyas said and added that they had been assured by the relevant officials several times about early allotment of the commercial plots to them but to no avail.

The province, he said, had already suffered heavily owing to the prevailing lawlessness and uncertainty. He said that new investors were reluctant to come there. Even in such a situation, the government was not encouraging local investors for unknown reasons, he added.

Mr Ilyas said that it seemed as if the federal government was intentionally destroying the economy of the militancy-hit province. He said that traders had already suffered but they were not supported by the government.

He also criticised PASDEC for reducing the lease period of mines from 99 years to 33 years and termed it a well-planned conspiracy to destroy economy of the province.

“We have paid all the installments and fulfilled the requirements for obtaining the commercial plots for a period of 99 years but now PASDEC chief executive officer is creating problems for the investors for unknown reasons,” Mr Ilyas said.

The representative of the investors said that before paying installments for the plots, PASDEC chief executive officer had assured them of facilitation but neither plots were allotted to them and nor electricity was supplied to the area.

“Initially we were asked to pay two of the total 10 installments for getting possession of the plots. We paid all the installments but no attention is paid to us,” Mr Ilyas said.

Other members of the action committee including Haji Abdul Jalil, Asghar Khan Utmankhel, Aftab Ahmad and Bakhtzada were also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2014