ISLAMABAD, Dec 1: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) will strictly adhere to the master plan of Islamabad and any violation of the plan will not be tolerated in future, the authority chairman, Kamran Lashari, told Dawn on Monday.

The chairman said he had observed that the master plan had been violated time and again. He agreed that such violations would spoil the natural beauty of the city.

Mr Lashari directed an official concerned to provide him the plan for thorough study so that he could analyze how the existing violations could be removed and how they could be stopped in future.

Meanwhile, sources in the CDA told Dawn that the authority was itself violating the capital’s master plan by establishing its complaint offices, tubewells and other installations on green belts. Iqbal Hall, which houses the revenue directorate of the authority, is also stated to be in a green belt of sector G-6.

Similarly, weekly bazaars of the CDA in G-9/4 and I-9 are held on the green belts.

According to the CDA laws, no movable and immovable structures can be established on the green belts. However, the green areas were still being used for setting up parking lots, shanty hotels, mosques, Madressahas, Wapda’s installations etc., the sources said.

They said since its formulation, the capital master plan had been taken up for revision only once in 1992 by the then cabinet. However, formal approval for the revised plan had not been given.

They said it was required that the master plan should be revised every three years according to the requirements of the time.

The sources said majority of immovable encroachments were made before 1995, but temporary encroachments like kiosks, shanty hotels and parking lots were still being made in connivance with the CDA.

Some previous political governments, they said, had contributed towards spoiling the master plan by forcing the CDA to construct buildings on green belts. The construction of Convention Centre was one such examples, they added.

Green belts in the vicinity of Fruit and Vegetable Market at Sector I-11 and Pirwadhai bus terminal have been encroached upon for parking trucks and other heavy vehicles, ruining the beauty of the area, some of the traders said.

They said green belts in the area had also been occupied by the gypsies and dwellers of kutchi abadis.

A number of mosques have also been constructed in violation of the master plan. In this regard, the authority has served notices on the committees of such mosques, an official of the District Auqaf Department said.

When contacted, a senior CDA official agreed that most of the authority’s own offices and tubewells had been constructed on the green belts.

However, he maintained that the green belts could be used for other purposes, but the authority had to check that the beauty of the area was not affected. “This is a common practice in the entire world that green areas are used for different purposes,” he added.

He said shanty hotels were allowed in those areas which were under development so that labourers could have access to cheap food.

Talking about kiosks established at different green belts of the city, the official said these kiosks were approved by the CDA so that the people of the area could get consumer items near their homes.

Responding to a question about parking of trucks in the vicinity of Fruit and Vegetable Market, he said the drivers had temporarily been allowed to park their vehicles on the green belts.