KHANEWAL, June 25: Illegal housing schemes are flourishing here because of the district government’s indifference. Sources told Dawn that a number of housing schemes were launched in various areas of the city during the last few years without approval or no-objection certificates (NoCs) from the authorities concerned. The developers of these housing schemes earned huge profits, but left development works incomplete.

Currently, Shadab Town, Data village, Defence Housing Scheme, Al-Raheem Town, Nishat Town, Garden Town, Al-Rehman Town, Sumera City, Khan Village, Adil City, Shaheen Town and Dastgeer Town are being developed without proper documentation and NoCs from the Revenue Department and the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA), but no action has been taken against them.

Most of these housing schemes have completely been sold or booked on token money by the people, who have not even seen official approval letters for these schemes. Moreover, the owners of these housing projects have not completed development works in accordance with promises they made to the people who bought plots or houses at these schemes. Of the 15 housing projects currently in progress, only Gulzar-i-Ibrahim Society was planned, constructed and sold legally, the sources said.

Property agents and dealers are also responsible for trapping people into these housing schemes.

Citizen Sajid Hussain said he purchased a 10-marla plot in Shadab Town on cash payment about three years ago, but the town was later found to be illegal. He said the town had not yet completed the development work.

“We don’t market such illegal real estate business,” property consultant Rana Shehzad said. He said that illegal housing schemes were flourishing because people were completely unaware about the status of these projects.

“The district government should have a complete study of the district to find illegal housing schemes. It should monitor the working of town planners to ensure that people get all facilities promised to them by their developers on time. The TMA should form a taskforce to monitor new housing schemes,” he added.

Khanewal Tehsil Municipal Officer Syed Raza Mehdi said the TMA was ‘alert’ to this problem. “We have issued legal notices to various town owners,” he claimed. He said the TMA had sent a proposal to the district government to make bylaws on housing schemes. He said there was need to amend laws related to town planning and development. He said the TMA would not allow anyone to start a housing scheme with land less than 20 acres.

District Coordination Officer Rao Shakeel Ahmad said he recently held a meeting with various departments and decided to take appropriate action.

Ahmad, who assumed his office as Khanewal DCO two weeks ago, said the district government would also crack down on housing schemes not meeting the official criteria.