SUKKUR, Jan 30: The federal minister for railways, Ghous Bux Mahar, on Wednesday criticized the Sukkur district government for its failure to come up with a definite plan about the city’s Kutchi Abadis on the railways lands despite being given Jan 29 as a deadline.

Speaking at a press conference at the DS office in Sukkur, he said that the ministry for railways had issued ‘No objection Certificates’ for Kutchi Abadis on railways lands in Lahore, adding that he also wanted to do the same here.

Criticizing the Naib Nazim, Iqbal Dawood, and other officials, he said that they were completely unprepared in this regard.

He said that they (district government officials) had wanted to allot lands to all residents of the Kutchi Abadis, while some of the railway buildings, like that of the DS office, the railway hospital and the railway station, were also located in those Kutchi Abadis.

He said that he had asked the district Nazim to prepare a concrete plan in this regard as the allotments would be made in a piecemeal fashion adding that this would have helped him to make an announcement on March 1.

Mr Mahar said that he had also asked the district government should to evict illegal occupants of the railways lands and hand it over to the railways department, adding that they should comply with the plan also by March 1.

He said that the PR would then issue NOCs to Kutchi Abadis, so that the lands could be transferred to the Sindh government, which could then sell it back to the residents on prevailing market rates.

Referring to the Mahar-Jatoi Jirga, the minister blamed the Jatoi chieftains for the failure of the Jirga, which was scheduled to be held on Jan 17.

Mr Mahar accused the Jatoi tribesmen of firing upon a group of women belonging to the Mahar tribe on the day of the Jirga, insisting that the Jirga could not be convened before the arrest of those responsible for firing upon them.

Dismissing allegations about his interference in the affairs of the Sindh government, he said that his rivals were trying to disinform the public in this regard.