LAHORE, June 13: Punjab Housing and Urban Development Minister Syed Raza Ali Gilani has said that the provincial government will start a crackdown on housing scheme mafia from July 1. Addressing a press conference at his office here on Monday, the minister said the deadline given by him to private sector developers for the approval of irregular cooperative housing schemes had expired and he was giving them a grace period for getting their schemes regularized from the Punjab Housing and Town Planning Authority, development authorities concerned or tehsil municipal administrations by June 30 positively.

He said his department had received data of all the private housing schemes in Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan and Rawalpindi from the authorities concerned. Data from 122 TMAs would be received by the end of the month positively.

The minister said 126 of 441 private schemes in Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan and Rawalpindi had been approved before launching. Only four schemes had been approved out of 44 in Gujranwala, 25 out of 49 in Multan, 46 out of 60 in Rawalpindi, 24 out of 49 in Multan and 23 out of 213 in Lahore. Not even a single scheme was approved out of 59 in Shalimar Town but 25 had been approved out of 26 in Nishtar Town in the city.

He said his department would start issuing notices to sponsors of unlawful housing schemes from July 1 and refer serious cases to the National Accountability Bureau. All the schemes launched without the approval of the respective authorities or the TMAs would be considered unlawful and sponsors would be proceeded against under the Punjab Local Government Ordinance and Punjab Development of Cities Act.

The minister said all private and cooperative housing schemes were required to be approved by the development authorities concerned or the TMAs and 20 per cent plots mortgaged pending the completion of development under the law.

The sponsors could not book the plots or invite applications for sale without approval of the schemes.

He said the government was not opposed to development of housing schemes by private sector as it could not clear the backlog of 270,000 housing units in the province from its resources. The government, however, wanted only genuine developers to enter the field and keep the housing mafia away from it.

Answering a question, he said the TMAs would sanction housing schemes on the recommendations of scrutiny committees, headed by the respective DCOs and consisting of TMOs and district officers of the Punjab Housing and Town Planning Agency.