HYDERABAD, Jan 27: Residents of Hosh Nagar on the Hali Road staged a demonstration outside the press club here on Friday in protest against demolition of their houses by the Hyderabad Development Authority.
Speaking on the occasion, Wasand Bagri, Ganesh Bagri and Akbar Jatoi said that they were living in Hosh Nagar for last 10 years and the HDA had bulldozed their houses without giving them any notice.
The protesters demanded compensation, alternative accommodation and strict action against the HDA officials.
However, a spokesman for the HDA in a statement said a housing scheme had been introduced in 1998 and plots were allotted to applicants through ballot.
He said it was a legal responsibility of the HDA to handover possession of plots to applicants.
The spokesman said that prices of land around the vegetable market, where the housing scheme is located, had increased.
He said the land mafia had also become active resulting in encroachments on allotted plots due to increase in prices.
He said owners of plots had sent telegrams to the provincial ombudsman and other authorities concerned about possession of plots.
The spokesman said the HDA had received instructions to deliver possession of plots to real owners.
He said it had become necessary to take action against illegal occupants.
AIDS: Out of 16 Aids preventive centres throughout Pakistan, formal inauguration of the first centre was held at the Liaquat Medical University Hospital in Hyderabad on Thursday under the aegis of the Sindh Health and Education Development Society’s (SHEDS) programme ‘better tomorrow’.
Medical superintendent of the Liaquat University Hospital, Dr Khalid Qureshi, performed inauguration of the centre which was a joint project of the federal health department and the Mari Isotopes Society.
Aids control programme experts from all over Pakistan attended the inaugural ceremony.
Five more such centres would be set up in Karachi, Sukkur and Larkana.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Khalid Qureshi said the federal and provincial governments had launched a vigorous campaign to create awakening among people against the killer disease.
Representative of the National Aids Control Programme of the federal health department, Dr Huma Qureshi, expressed concern over proliferation of HIV/Aids and urged people to change their attitude.
The country manager of the programme, Dr Abdul Khaliq Ghani, in his speech claimed that his organization had surpassed the target in protecting people from the disease.
He disclosed that 14,000 people throughout Pakistan had been provided counselling and test facilities against Aids.
Manager of the SHEDS’ Hyderabad centre, Wajid Shams Memon, disclosed that according to unofficial reports there were 2,200 HIV/Aids patients in Sindh and 80,000 throughout Pakistan.
Others who spoke on the occasion were Dr Tufail Ahmed Bhatti, Dr Zahid Saddar, Dr Aziz Ahmed Memon and others.