Commissioner cancels land acquisition for Ring Road project

Published August 5, 2021
The corruption allegation in the Ring Road project led to cancellation of land acquisition. 
— Photo courtesy Profit by Pakistan Today/File
The corruption allegation in the Ring Road project led to cancellation of land acquisition. — Photo courtesy Profit by Pakistan Today/File

RAWALPINDI: Commissioner Syed Gulzar Hussain Shah on Wednesday cancelled the land acquisition in Rawalpindi and Attock for the construction of Rawalpindi Ring Road project and asked the district administration to form teams for recovery of Rs2.45 billion paid to the landowners.

The corruption allegation in the Ring Road project led to cancellation of land acquisition.

An inquiry at the highest level in the provincial government revealed that changes had been made to the actual plan of the Ring Road to create new road infrastructures allegedly aimed at benefiting some private housing societies, which increased the cost of the project by Rs25 billion.

Orders recovery of over Rs2bn paid to landowners

When the controversy deepened, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Sayed Zulfiqar Bukhari resigned from his position while Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan rejected the corruption charges and offered to quit politics if allegations against him were proved.

After restoring the original alignment from Rawat to Thallian near motorway, the Punjab government made new PC-I of the project and decided to construct it under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) instead of Public-Private Partnership. The PC-I was sent to the Punjab Planning and Development Board for approval.

The board, however, returned the PC-I with the direction to first decide the mode of construction, as under the PSDP the funding will be borne by the provincial government.

On the other hand, the Punjab audit team pointed out that Rs2.4 billion had been distributed among the landowners for acquiring the land for the project.

In his order, Commissioner Gulzar Hussain Shah, said that under Section 48(1) of Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the amount paid to the landowners for acquisition of land undertaken along the entire length of the illegally advertised alignment falling in Rawalpindi and Attock districts would be recovered.

The district collector shall determine the amount of compensation to be given to the owner for the damage in consequence of the notice or of any proceeding.

A senior official of administration told Dawn that the commissioner had asked the administration to start the work to recover the money from landowners and formed teams in this regard.

He said the Rawalpindi Development Authority had been asked to provide the payment record to the administration. He said after the scam, the record was sealed to avoid tampering with the figures.

“But for recovering the amount the Punjab Board of Revenue should first de-notify the land acquisition as it has already notified in the gazette,” he said.

He said it was a long process and there were chances that if the administration moved to get back the money the landowners would move courts.

“Most people had already utilised the money on purchase of new cars or plots,” he said.

Payment of Rs2.43 billion had been made for 11,300 kanals of land, including 6,600 kanals in Rawalpindi and 4,700 kanals in Attock.

“The amount was made to 1,100 landowners in Rawalpindi and 500 in Attock,” said a senior official of the administration.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Aamir Aqiq Khan admitted that the district administration got the orders and the process to get back the money had been started.

He said the relevant assistant commissioner would initiate the process to recover the money from the landowners with the assistance of revenue department teams.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2021

Opinion

Editorial

Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...
Provincial share
Updated 17 Mar, 2024

Provincial share

PPP has aptly advised Centre to worry about improving its tax collection rather than eying provinces’ share of tax revenues.
X-communication
17 Mar, 2024

X-communication

IT has now been a month since Pakistani authorities decided that the country must be cut off from one of the...
Stateless humanity
17 Mar, 2024

Stateless humanity

THE endless hostility between India and Pakistan has reduced prisoners to mere statistics. Although the two ...