RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) will tighten the noose around 367 illegal housing societies from tomorrow (Thursday) and launch a grand operation against them with the help of a joint task force comprising its officials as well as those of the district administration and police.

Besides, the authority had also started an awareness campaign to warn people against investing in unapproved housing schemes.

Talking to Dawn, RDA Director General Kinza Murtaza said the civic body had received public complaints from within and outside the country against housing societies after which it was decided to launch an operation.

“The RDA’s doors are always open to people who intend to invest in housing schemes and wanted information about their legal status; therefore officials have been directed to guide citizens who contacted the RDA office, in person or through online link,” she said.

Ms Murtaza said there were only 69 housing schemes that had obtained approval from the RDA under the law while all others were illegal, adding that, “we have prepared a list of 367 housing schemes which will face legal actions”.

The Punjab government has given clear directions to the RDA to save people’s investment after which an awareness campaign was launched, she said, adding that, “we installed banners on the main roads and advertised on social media about the illegal housing schemes”.

The RDA director general said the civic body would also ensure that the approved housing societies neither changed the layout plan nor the status of land allocated for public parks, schools, mosques and graveyards in their respective jurisdiction.

“This was a major issue which we are facing; housing schemes changed the status of land allocated for parks, greenbelts, graveyards, mosques and schools and converted them into residential and commercial plots. We will therefore check whether the developer had handed over the state land for roads, parks, schools, mosques and graveyards to the government or not,” she said.

Meanwhile, people have asked the RDA to introduce QR code for the housing scheme layout plan so that they could verify the residential and commercial plots and then invest in the society.

When told about this demand, the RDA chief replied that it was a good suggestion which could be considered.“We will place this demand in the next meeting of the governing body, and if approved, it will be launched without wasting time, she added.

Ms Murtaza said the RDA had displayed lists of all illegal and legal housing schemes as well as their layout plans on its website where people could check.

“We plan to install billboards at prominent squares of the city on which the names of all legal and illegal housing schemes would be mentioned,” she added.

Talking about encroachments along Soan River, the RDA director general said she had written to the Rawalpindi commissioner, asking him to direct the irrigation department and district administration to conduct a survey on the right of way of Soan River.

“After getting the right of way of Soan River, we would launch a drive against encroachments and remove them before monsoon. Many localities are affected by flood in Soan River during monsoon and there was a dire need to solve the issue at the earliest,” she said.

Replying to a query about missing record of state land in housing schemes, Ms Murtaza said the land revenue department had been asked to provide all records available with it of land allocated for parks, schools, graveyards and roads so that the civic body could check the housing scheme’s record as well as the position on ground.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2024