ISLAMABAD, July 14: Villagers of Pind Sangrial and Siri Saral have decided to move court within a few days to stop development work in sector D-12 unless they are duly compensated for their land acquired by the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

Some of the villagers told Dawn on Sunday that they had presented their demand before the authority’s senior officials, but it had not been accepted.

“We have no other option, but to move court to get our right,” they said.

The villagers told Dawn that they had filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench in 1996 to get compensation against their land acquired by the CDA for developing the new sector. They said the court had ordered the CDA not to remove the villagers unless they were duly compensated. The CDA had committed contempt of court by not following court orders, they claimed.

“We will file another petition in the same LHC, Rawalpindi bench to get the previous verdict of the court implemented,” they added.

Responding to a question about the present market price of the land in sector D-12, they said the CDA acquired their land in 1985 at a cost of Rs100 to Rs500 per kanal.

“However, it is now selling the land at the rate of Rs2 million per kanal,” they added.

They said they should also be given the present market price of their land, otherwise they would not let CDA go ahead with the development plan.

Siri Saral and Pind Sangrial exist on the land where the new sector is being developed. Some 2,000 houses are stated to be located in both the villages which have not been removed by the CDA before developing the sector.

The date of the foundation-stone laying ceremony of sector D-12 has been further extended and now it will be held on July 17 instead of July 16.

However, the villagers have refused to vacate the land unless they are allotted plots at alternate places or given justified compensation amount.

Some 12 villagers who have over 100 kanals of land each in Siri Saral are demanding that they should be given agricultural plots in compensation.

They said their land was acquired in 1985 under the CDA’s land disposal policy 1984. As per policy, the CDA was bound to provide 20 kanals of agriculture land to the owners in place of the 40 kanals acquired land.

Some of the affected villagers were of the view that they had been given a very meagre compensation amount. They said the CDA should pay them more for acquiring their land.

A source told Dawn that earlier there were 700 affected villagers, but in 1988 some 1,612 fake claims were made in connivance with the CDA officials and compensation amount on these claims had been given. However, the genuine villagers have been deprived of the due compensation.

The estimated expenditure for developing the sector has increased to over 300 per cent in the span of 12 years.

The source said the PC-I of the project amounting to Rs788 million was approved by the CDA board in 1988, but due to several reasons the project had so far not been implemented and its estimated cost had escalated to Rs3.2 billion.