KARACHI, Nov 13: Sindh ombudsman, Justice (rtd) Haziqul Khairi, has convened a meeting on Thursday to discuss the delay in the development work of the Hawkesbay Housing Scheme sector 42 by the LDA/KDA and illegal allotment of land to various persons by the the Sindh Board of Revenue.

According to a hand out, On October 5, 2002, the ombudsman took suo moto notice of the alleged administrative excesses and the delay. In the decision dated 13-1-2001 it had been held by him that there was no physical survey of the land, but paper allotments were issued to as many as 26,462 applications, from whom Rs700.8 million were collected by the defunct KDA.

When the scheme was transferred to the LDA, it received no money out of the said 700.8 million stated to have been spent by the KDA on the development of the scheme and beach development. The beach development scheme was disowned by the defunct LDA as it did not form part of the Hawkesbay Housing Scheme 42.

In view of these facts, the ombudsman had held that he did not foresee how the scheme should take off. Accordingly, he had directed the chief secretary Sindh to initiate an inquiry into the affairs of the scheme. He had directed the Board of Revenue and the LDA to carry out a joint survey of the scheme.

On 15-2-2001, the governor of Sindh took notice of the matter and constituted a committee in that regard. The committee suggested that double allotments of land or plots should be withdrawn and their possession/title be restored in the name of the LDA. Further, civic facilities should be carried out through the private sector and proposals should be invited. These recommendations were submitted to the governor on 26-6-2001.

In order to apprise him of the latest position, the ombudsman again called the agencies concerned on21-9-2002, 16-10-2002 and 13-11-2002. It turned out that no joint survey of the land was carried out by the Board of Revenue and the LDA. Further neither double allotments were withdrawn nor any proposal from the private sector for the development of the scheme was invited as per the directions of the governor.—PPI