KARACHI, Aug 7: Gutter Baghicha, which was originally spread over 1016 acres, now stands reduced to only 469 acres due to misuse of the amenity plot by land grabbers and vested interests functionaries of the defunct KMC.
A full bench of the Supreme Court had directed the city district government, which is successor to the defunct KMC, to submit a compliance report regrading unlawful conversion by the KMC of parts of the amenity plot to commercial, industrial and residential use.
The order was passed by the court in the human rights case No 6-K/1993 on May 29, 2003.
In view of paucity of open spaces and recreation spots, the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency had submitted a statement to the court that to combat environmental pollution in the densely populated area, the amenity plot must be used as a park.
Later, President Gen Pervez Musharraf announced to convert the ‘Baghicha’ into a proper park at the inauguration ceremony of Quaid-i-Azam Mausoleum Park on April 28, 2002.
City Nazim Naimatullah Khan had also publicly said that “Gutter Baghicha” would be converted into a park.
However, very little progress has been made in this regard.
Recently, Chief Secretary Dr Mutawwakil Qazi had held a meeting with the city government, Shehri, the CBE and representatives of the area to sort out the issue so that development work could be undertaken to comply with the directive of President Musharraf.
When his attention was drawn towards new encroachment attempts, the chief secretary passed an order to complete the survey. But before the survey and demarcation work of the amenity plot could be undertaken, some unscrupulous elements made fresh attempts to further slice its open spaces. However, vigilant residents were able to foil the attempts.
Although the chief secretary had passed the order on July 8, the instruction was complied with last week under supervision of the DDO (revenue) Shahid Leghari.
According to the survey, out of 1016 acres only 469 acres are left, and the original boundary still exists stretching from old Golimar to Petrol Pump in SITE area and from TP-1 to Mewa Shah graveyard, Mr Nisar Baloch, who represents the NGOs in the survey team told Dawn.
He said that now the DDO was awaiting payment between Rs30,000 and 40,000 for carrying out proper survey and demarcation of the plot.
However, Mr Baloch expressed his apprehension that the work was being delayed because of some officials of the city government who happened to be official of the KMC cooperative society.
In this connection he referred to misuse of the park by numerous town administrations who had started using the amenity plot as a garbage dumping site instead of taking refuse trucks to the landfill site at Gujro, Surjani Town.
Over the past week about 500 garbage trucks from various towns and 1,000 trailers of marble dust from workshops on the Manghopir Road had been illegally dumped in this amenity plot, he pointed out.
He said in response to the order of the Supreme Court to the city government directing it to file a compliance report within two months, a 13-point memorandum was submitted to the city government by the citizens asking the government to undertake the responsibility of undoing all illegal allotments, auctions, and to follow litigation to retrieve the amenity plot, but nothing concrete had been done.