LAHORE: The government has nearly finalised plans to transfer the building control jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore (MCL) to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to better regulate building-related affairs and increase revenues. Authorities have been given the green light to amend the relevant local government laws, rules, and regulations to facilitate this transition, as Dawn has learned.

This development was discussed during a meeting, attended by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, at the LDA Complex. She was briefed about various activities undertaken by the authority. A comparison of revenue generation by MCL and LDA proved to be the turning point, prompting the chief minister to make this decision, a senior official privy to the meeting explained to Dawn on Sunday.

The officer, requesting anonymity said when the chief minister saw revenue collection by MCL and LDA in the fiscal year 2023-24 was Rs65 million and over Rs9 billion respectively, she asked the senior officers concerned to better hand over the MCL area to LDA to the extent of building control affairs, such as approval and implementation of building plans, enforcement of building regulations, collection of relevant fees, imposition of penalties, etc. She was also reportedly unhappy with the meagre revenue collection by MCL, which manages a vast area of 802 square kilometres compared to the LDA’s 547 square kilometres.

“During the discussion, a legal hindrance was pointed out but the chief minister asked the senior officials to send a summary to her so as to amend the law and then transfer the MCL areas’ building control to LDA,” the official said, adding that the decision to constitute the Punjab Development Authority was also taken after discussion over the building control-related affairs of MCL and LDA.

Sharing further details of the meeting, the official revealed that during discussions on the upgradation and remodelling of MM Alam Road in Gulberg, the chief minister suggested that it should not be limited to this road alone. She proposed that one side of MM Alam Road be designed for pedestrians and shoppers, and include an electric tram service starting from Mini Market, going to Hussain Chowk, then to Liberty Roundabout and back to Mini Market via Gulberg Main Boulevard.

“We are planning to develop this area like Taksim Square in Istanbul, which is completely pedestrianised, having tram service too. We will expand this Gulberg re-generation plan to Kalma Chowk. A detailed plan will be shared with the government within next 15 days as desired by the chief minsiter,” he said.

He said the LDA was passing through restructuring process with sifting of record related to all LDA-owned housing schemes and other reforms being introduced in various wings including town and metropolitan planning, housing and enforcement wings. Public grievance committees will also be established in town planning and metropolitan planning wings in a bid to resolve the public complaints quickly. “The work on strengthening of enforcement wing is also underway these days,” the official said.

LESCO: The Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) on Sunday detected 506 connections where customers were pilfering electricity across its circles in five districts: Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur, and Okara.

The Lesco spokesperson informed the media that the company has submitted FIR applications against the electricity thieves, resulting in 178 FIRs being registered at respective police stations, with 46 arrests made so far.

On the 274th consecutive day of the anti-power theft campaign, the spokesperson added that large commercial consumers were also found involved in electricity theft. All such connections were disconnected and charged with detection units. Among the seized connections, 23 were commercial, 4 agricultural, 2 industrial, and 477 domestic. All these connections were disconnected and collectively charged with a total of 392,468 units, amounting to Rs 13.28 million in detection bills.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2024