LAHORE: The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has extended the last date of its amnesty scheme till March 20.

Under the scheme, the people using Wasa-owned water through unlawful network can get their connections legalised without paying any penalty / fine till the last date. After this deadline, Wasa will launch a crackdown on water thieves by getting them prosecuted for two-year imprisonment or Rs200,000 fine or both under the law.

“Previously, the last date was March 5. But the people insisted on increasing it for further 15 days that we have done finally,” Wasa Vice Chairman Sheikh Imtiaz Mahmood told reporters at a press conference here on Wednesday. He claimed that Wasa had added Rs1 billion to its total revenue during the last four months. He said the last date for the amnesty scheme wouldn’t be extended anymore and those who would also ignore this opportunity would be arrested.

LDA: Besides development partners, landowners have also started presenting their land to the government for the mega LDA city housing project. Various chunks of land measuring about 375 kanal have been presented to the LDA during the current month for carving out plots.

“Since the Supreme Court of Pakistan has specified a period of eight months for allocating plots to more than 9,000 file holders of the LDA City, the development partners should further gear up their efforts for achieving this target,” LDA’s Additional Director General (Urban Planning) Rana Tika Khan sought in a meeting held with the representatives of the four development partners. He asked them to present maximum land for completing the target within the timeline given by the apex court.

The LDA would be authorised to acquire the remaining land after this period, he said.

The participants were informed that since the landowners also started presenting land to the LDA for the project, 34 contractors and engineering firms have expressed their interest in carrying out the development works in phase. It spreads over 13,000 kanal. “Applications for prequalification were being scrutinised and approval for execution of development works will be obtained from the governing body of the LDA very soon,” he said.

The LDA, under a policy, was earlier supposed to acquire the land through development partners. However, it later announced that it would acquire land also directly from the landowners to expedite the land acquisition process.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2019