ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: The city managers have warned the public not to invest in a farm housing scheme launched in Sector C-17 and D- 17 in Zone-II, sources told Dawn on Thursday.

The sources said the city managers have declared the scheme floated by Islamabad Agro-Farming Cooperative Society (IAFCS) as illegal and unauthorised despite the fact that people had invested millions of rupees in it.

They said the society had even not submitted its layout plan to the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

A notice issued by the CDA to the society said: “General public is therefore warned to refrain from any sale/purchase in the agro-farming scheme.”

The management of the society has also been directed to stop sale, purchase and development of the scheme failing which the CDA will take action.

When contacted, CDA director housing schemes Sarwar Sindhu said besides serving notice on the society the authority had also written a letter to the district administration’s registrar cooperatives suggesting him to take stern action against the management of the housing scheme.

As it is a cooperative society and registered with the Islamabad cooperative department, the first responsibility to stop its illegal activity lies with the local administration, he maintained.

However, despite receiving the letter from the CDA, the registrar cooperatives has not taken any action against the society.

Sources said the management of the agro-farming scheme had already laid sewage lines and started construction of roads.

The CDA director said any sort of construction by any scheme was illegal until approved by the CDA.

It is a normal practice to submit the layout plan of a scheme to the CDA and start development work on the project only after having approval and a no-objection certificate from the authority, he added.

He said launching of farm-housing schemes had never been allowed in Zone-II and the CDA had no plan to allow it in the near future.On the other hand, over 100 agro-farms have been sold in the scheme, majority of them purchased by overseas Pakistanis.

Farm-housing schemes were only allowed in Zone-IV and according to the CDA rules, the minimum area for a farm house is eight kanals. However, IAFCS has five and ten kanal farm houses.