KARACHI, Oct 26: Sindh Minister for Local Government, Katchi Abadis and Spatial Development Mohammad Hussain Khan has asked the goth-abad and revenue authorities to conduct a joint survey of notified villages at the city periphery areas to ascertain the factual data of houses and their inhabitants.

He issued the directive while presiding over a meeting of the liaison committee formulated for resolving land disputes of the Malir Development Authority and Lyari Development Authority in his office here on Friday.

The minister ordered that the notified villages be measured at the earliest to discourage land-grabbers who tried to occupy land in the name of goths (villages). Besides, he said, poles indicating jurisdictions of villages should be erected.

He also asked revenue authorities to activate the zonal committees, announced earlier, in this regard.

Mr Hussain said the government would not allow encroachment on government land as it created hurdles in planning and expansion of some ongoing development projects.

He said the demarcation of notified villages was necessary to ensure that the uplift projects benefited only genuine villages. Overnight emergence of a locality with the support of land mafia in the name of a goth would never be tolerated, he added.

The minister asked the Scheme-33 project director and the managing-directors of the MDA and the LDA to extend all possible assistance to the board of revenue and gothabad department to benefit genuine villagers living here for many years.

Special Secretary (Housing) Ali Azhar Baloch, Sindh Katchi Abadis Authority Director-General Ali Ahmed Lund, LDA Director-General Sarfaraz Khan, MDA Director-General Amirzada Kohati and officers of revenue and goth-abad departments attended the meeting.

—PPI