ISLAMABAD, Jan 4: The news that 109 Capital Development Authority (CDA) employees, over 90 per cent of them working in the civic agency on deputation, will be given plots is being treated with ambivalence within the Authority.

Fulltime employees are critical of the move and fear that the employees working in the civic agency on deputation might be impinging upon their rights.

While the allotment doesn’t violate CDA’s land allotment rules, critics within the authority point out that Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf had recently imposed a ban on allotment of land to officers working in the civic agency on deputation.

On the other hand, employees favouring the allotment quote a 2005 Supreme Court decision that allowed the allotment.

According to documents made available to Dawn, the officials will be given residential plots in Sector D-12 and I-8.

The deputation officers of grade 17 and grade 19 have already been given the plot numbers. The plot numbers are given after a balloting which was held in mid-2012, and the deputation officials are now claiming their ‘right’ under CDA Land Disposal Regulations 2005.

Under the Land Disposal Regulations 2005, CDA employees have a 20 per cent reserved quota in every residential sector.

Another official close to the development said that the CDA management had not formulated any policy for allotment of plots to its serving, retired and deputation officials.

“Plots are only given to those who had good connections with the management or hold a powerful lobby within CDA,” said the official.

Ramzan Sajid, the spokesman for CDA, when asked to comment on the matter insisted: “These plots are set aside after thorough scrutiny by a committee formed by the CDA administration. The move was done as per CDA Land Disposal Regulations 2005.”

Mr Sajid maintained that the Land Disposal Regulations 2005 had given the right to every CDA official to have a plot in a developed sector.

He explained: “Any official who is working for the CDA is its employee. Any official having served for over a year with the authority and having 10-year of government service is eligible for getting a plot.”

However, a number of CDA officials shown reservations over the allotment of plots to the officials working in the authority on deputation.

“The allotment of residential plots to the over 100 officials will deprive CDA workers of their right to get plots since the authority has only 20 per cent quota in residential sectors for its employees,” insisted one of the officials who has been working in the CDA for the last 10 years.

What goes in favour of CDA officials critical of the allotment is the recent move of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Asharf who on the request of chairman CDA Syed Tahir Shahbaz imposed a ban on allotment of plots to the deputation workers on December 15.

A senior official of the CDA, who is also close to his retirement, remarked: “The whole process should be reviewed and a policy framed since there are a number of officials who qualify for residential plots but were ignored in the list.”

The official informed Dawn that plots were allotted to officials on deputation and CDA officers who had better connections with powerful board members of the authority and officials in the cabinet division.

But the CDA spokesman asserted that there should be no concern for anyone in the allotments of plots to deputation workers since the Supreme Court had already decided on the matter.

“In 2005, the apex court had ordered that any official working for the authority is its employee, including those on deputation,” added the spokesman.—Imran Ali Teepu