TAXILA: A perpetual delay in convening a meeting of the District Planning and Design Committee (DPDC) to finalise the status of commercial properties cost the six different municipal committees (MC) millions of rupees during the last two years.

Due to departmental hiccups, red-tape and lack of interest by the district management the DPDC meeting of the Attock district could not be held for over two years, and as a result, not only the status of over 55 properties has been hanging in the balance but it has also deprived the six different municipal committees (MC) millions of rupees in revenue.

“Once the commercialization of these properties in six different towns of district including Attock, Jand, Pindigheb, Hazro, Hassanabdal and Fatehjang is complete, the district government would earn revenue amounting to Rs200 millions in respect of approval of building plans and other development charges,” Said Zaheer Ahmed, former local government representative.

According to inside sources, due to” tapping the financial resources of municipal committees, the salaries of officials of municipal committees especially Jand and Hazro faced delay and disbursed even after 15 to 20 days’ delay”.

The official sources further added that due to suspending the sources of revenue, the pensioners of various municipal committees, especially Hassanabdal, were denied pension for the last two years.

The sources further revealed that the commercialisation fee of millions of rupees could not be collected in these cases either.

Munnaza Peerzada, Chairperson of an NGO working in development and welfare sector commenting over the issue said that due to the premature dissolution of local government bodies in Punjab including in the Attock district, not only several vital development projects have been facing delays but also citizens have been having problems in resolving civic issues. The working of the six different municipal committees of district Attock has virtually come to a standstill for the last one year or so in terms of development work as administrative officers show the least interest in resolving public issues.

When contacted, Attock deputy commissioner, who is the administrator of the district council, Rao Atif Raza said that the frequent changes in district administration led to delay holding of the meeting. He said that the pending commercialisation cases will be presented in the next DPDC meeting for approval. He also said that letters will also be issued to owners of the already approved commercial plots.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2023