PESHAWAR, Oct 20: The NWFP government has refused to allow Wapda to avail itself of the services of land acquisition collector appointed by the province for the acquisition of land for executing the Gomal Zam dam project, official sources told Dawn.

In a recently sent communique to Chairman Wapda Lt-Gen Zulfiqar Ali Khan, the NWFP government has taken the stand that it would not place the services of its land acquisition collector with Wapda in view of the ‘terrible’ experience the province has had in other Wapda-supervised water and power projects.

The NWFP government’s stand, the sources said, appeared to be in sharp contrast to the past when the land acquisition collector used to execute Wapda-supervised projects.

The province has quoted the example of Chashma Right Bank Canal (CRBC) project as the basis for its tough stand.

“There are still a large number of land acquisition cases (concerning CRBC) which remain to be settled despite the fact that over 20 years have passed since land was acquired for the project in southern parts of the province,” said a senior officer of the provincial government.

Provincial minister for revenue, excise and taxation Aminullah Gandapur, when contacted, confirmed the provincial government’s stand and said that “we have communicated our stand in clear words to the Wapda chairman.”

Previously, services of the land acquisition collector (for a specific project involving acquisition of land) used to be placed with Wapda, though the officer was appointed by the province from among its staff.

“We have a bitter experience specially after the CRBC,” said the minister.

The sources said the provincial government had taken the stand on the pretext that officer appointed by one entity (provincial government) and answerable to another entity (Wapda) did not work well in the past.

“The previous exercise caused delay in processing and deciding land acquisition cases making the people (from whom land was acquired for executing the CRBC) suffer heavily,” said the minister.

However, he appeared optimistic that the pending cases of land acquisition (concerning CRBC) would be finalized by the end of December.

“We have assurances from Wapda in this respect,” said the minister.

The move of placing the services of land acquisition collector (for the Gomal Zam Dam) with the NWFP Board of Revenue, instead of Wapda, was aimed at settling the land acquisition cases at a fast pace, said the sources.