HYDERABAD: Allotees of public sector Gulistna-i-Sarmast Housing Scheme have urged Sindh government to make sure that Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) hands over possession of 33,000 plots to them.

They said Rs8 billion had been collected from the allotees of the housing scheme of 2009, but they were still awaiting possession after over a decade.

Addressing a joint press conference at the local press club on Sunday, Rafiq Ahmed, Mohammad Asad, Sajid Rehman, Farhan Rajput and Mohammad Fahad, who owned a 120 sq.yds. plots in the scheme, rapped the HDA for delaying the possession for over 12 years.

They said that now fourth phase of balloting was pending since February 2020 and added the HDA was in fact playing with the plots that are usually cancelled due to non-payments and then the same were launched in the next phase.

They said that out of the 33,555 allotees, 24,700 allotees owned 120 sq. yds. plots, but now they were unable to build their houses due to rising construction cost.

They said that those who owned 400 sq. yds. plots were around 2,051 people. Construction cost had been increased multiple times since 2009, they said. Had plots been handed over to them in 2009 when the scheme launched by Kanwar Naveed Jamil as district nazim of Hyderabad, those people might have been able to build their homes, they lamented.

They said balloting in three phases had been held while the fourth one was pending for which initial payment had been received by the HAD. No development works of note had taken place, they said.

Development works done soon after launching of the scheme by then district nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil were there alone, they said.

They further said amenities had not been provided to the allottees and many doubt were there as to whether the land did really exist or not. They said many allottees had died in wait for getting possession of their plots.

They said that besides residential plots, commercial and industrial ones were also part of the scheme. Around Rs8bn, they said, had been collected from the allotees so far by the HDA in four phases. Probably that the amount had been spent in HDA’s other works or it had been stomached by corrupt officers of the HAD, they observed.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2021