LAHORE: The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and the Saddar Division police on Sunday retrieved 1,000-kanal land from illegal occupants.

The operation was launched on the direction of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The LDA staff and police sprang into action for the removal of makeshift huts and shanties spreading over more than 1,000 kanal in the Finance and Trade Centre block in Johar Town (near Expo Centre). These makeshift abodes were established as a first step for consolidating illegal occupation of the state land by the unauthorised occupants.

Side by side with these huts, other structures such as houses had also been constructed. The dwellers revealed that they had been paying rent to local influential people for staying without trouble.

Shanty dwellers claim they would grease the palms of influential people

The operation was going on till filing of this report.

Superintendent of Police Ali Raza said the operation had been launched against the land grabbers in Johar Town and police were assisting the LDA and Revenue Department. He said they had also set up a camp and started receiving applications from the people against the land grabbers and would take action according to law.

He said an advertisement campaign was launched through TV cable, banners, leaflets and mosques and they got more than 100 applications from the area people against the land grabbers. Police would take action against them all, he said.

The SP said the operation would continue on Monday and they would clear the area off the land grabbers.

Meanwhile, LDA Director General Amna Imran Khan has directed officials to encourage construction of houses in the LDA Avenue 1 housing scheme and take necessary measures for facilitating the plot owners. During a visit to the scheme, she sought the newly-constructed community centre to be made functional and completion of the office building within 15 days.

She directed the officials to request the Honorable Court for early hearing of cases about the area of the scheme under litigation with a view to getting decision of cases pertaining to plots of hundreds of allottees at an early date. She said there should be a workable proposal for revenue generation from commercial plots of Jubilee Town housing scheme.

Additional director generals Rana Abdul Shakoor, Rana Tikka Khan and Zarif Satti, Chief Engineer Mazhar Hussain Khan and Director Estate Management Khadim Taqueer Hassan accompanied the director general.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2018