RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) met after a three-month gap on Thursday with elected members to approve 296 residential and six commercial building plans and launch a Rs20 million water supply project for the cantonment areas.

The meeting was chaired by Station Commander Brig Ijaz Qamar Kiani. RCB Cantonment Executive Officer Sibtain Raza, elected members and senior cantonment board officials were present.

The board met for the first time after elected members were given an extension in their tenure, which expired Dec 9, 2019, by the Election Commission.

The extension will last until the next local bodies elections in cantonments across the country.

The meeting approved building plans that have been pending for three months. It also approved old grant and lease cases and extensions in the service of teachers and doctors.

The meeting was cut short by time constraints. A senior official said it began in the afternoon and continued until evening, when doctors, religious and political figures had been invited to form a plan to deal with the spread of the coronavirus in the cantonment areas.

Another meeting will be held on Friday to decide how to prevent the spread of the virus.

The RCB also issued 340 notices to shopkeepers operating without trade licences in its areas. RCB spokesperson Qaiser Mehmood said the enforcement wing took action in accordance with the law.

The RCB’s food control department carried out operations against rule violations and served warning notices to more than 340 bakeries, general stores, dairy shops, medical stores, chicken shops and others on Dhoke Syedan Road, Kalma Chowk, Bakra Mandi, Afshan Colony, Dhoke Mustakeem Road, Saham Road, Tench Bhatta, Misrial Road and in other areas.

The department also received a large number of applications and issued new licenses to 80 shopkeepers who had met all the requirements for the license and collected more than Rs500,000 in revenue.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2020