LAHORE, Oct 15: The Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) has backed out of the agreement it reached with its 200 or so tenants to reduce rents if the same were found to be more than the market rates of similar properties in the vicinity.

A survey revealed the tenants were already paying more than the market rate of similar properties and the ETPB had backed out of its promise, one of the occupants told this reporter at the board office here.

“The occupants of the shops at Karachi’s Aram Bagh are paying from Rs1,000 to Rs3,000, at Quettawala Building from Rs500 to Rs3,000, at Main Jodia Bazaar from Rs600 to Rs2,500 while the tenants at the Sheesha Market deposit Rs8,000 in total that is 25 to 30 per cent more than the market rates of the similar properties in the areas concerned,” said the ETPB tenant who had come from Karachi and wished not to be named.

He said the board was demanding Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 for Aram Bagh, Rs5,000 to Rs15,000 for Quettawala Building, Rs3,000 to Rs10,000 for Main Jodia Bazaar and Rs250,000 in total from tenants of Sheesha Market.

Regarding the revised scheme introduced by the ETPB for the reassessment of trust properties rent, he said it was nothing but a method to evict tenants who refused to budge to the `uncalled for, out of all proportions and unreasonable’ demand to pay the exorbitant rent.

“The tenants are free to file objections to the proposed raise in the rent but the same are arbitrarily rejected without giving the applicants a hearing. The remedies offered in the new scheme are sham as not a single case has been decided in favour of any tenant,” he said.

Another visitor to the ETPB office, Mr Butt, said the situation at the Sir Ganga Ram Building, Dyal Singh Mansion and Shah Alam Market of Lahore besides Mekka Market of Rawalpindi was also not better.

“A tenant at the Dyal Singh Mansion has been paying, for the last 60 years or so, near to proximity the same rent as is being charged for new building at Suha Bazaar by the ETPB. The Dyal Singh Mansion was constructed in 1920 while the Suha Bazaar building was raised some years ago,” said Mr Butt.

ETPB officials said there was a dire need to bring the rents to a reasonable level so that the income derived from there could be utilised to further maintain, renovate functional Gurdwaras and Madaris and organise religious events for Hindu and Sikh pilgrims, coming from all over the world throughout the year and there number was increasing every year.

Maintenance of religious places, Mr Butt said, was only a pretext to justify the unjustified increase in rents. The ETPB has deposited billions of rupees with private banks that could be utilised for the purpose, he said.

“The ETPB cannot force its tenants in general and the public at large to pay for charity. It is always discretion of the donors and it cannot be enforced. Furthermore, where goes the money donated by the Hindu and Sikh pilgrims?” Mr Butt asked.