LAHORE, Feb 17: An all-important meeting of the Lahore Development Authority on Saturday allowed its officers on deputation to get plots as bonus along with the regular officers in clear-cut violation of rules and against the merit.
According to a source who attended the meeting chaired by Mian Amer Mahmood, neither details about the criterion for selecting the deputation officers like their number, grade, length of service, etc., were given nor was any discussion allowed on the issue when it was put up before the participants as a “table item”.
The matter had not been included in the meeting agenda to avoid circulating it among the members so that opponents of the gross violations could not prepare any strategy to counter the proposal unprecedented so far.
“To everyone’s dismay, the violation of rules is being committed under the very nose of the incumbent rulers who have been accusing their predecessors of allotting hundreds of plots against rules and regulations and bringing the LDA to the brink of collapse,” said an LDA official who requested anonymity.
Sources feared that the precedent set by the move would open a Pandora’s box as the officers who had been on deputation in the LDA in the past or who would be on such posts in future would also seek allotment of free plots for them.
It would also cause heartburning among the regular officers serving the LDA for the last more than one decade, but are not permitted to get a plot under a verdict of the Lahore High Court issued in 1997.
Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood could not be contacted for version despite repeated attempts.
Meanwhile, the meeting gave a go-ahead for repairs and maintenance of Datanagar overhead bridge (Badami Bagh) in view of its worn-out condition. The project would cost Rs38.7 million.
It decided to send two inquiry reports to the National Accountability Bureau for further action. One of these reports was about irregularities in allotment of plots reserved for widows and the destitute in various housing schemes of the LDA and the other pertained to illegal constructions on bogus allotment of 41 plots in Johar Town housing scheme.
The authority also decided to allow the Model Town Society to alter its design. The society intends to establish a commercial area on a piece of land situated near Link Road.
LDA director-general Raja Muhammad Abbas, town nazims Tariq Sana Bajwa, Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf, Mian Javed Ali, Ms Shafqatun Nisa, Mian Javed Ali and Fraz Ahmad Chaudhry, besides representatives of provincial finance, local government, housing, and planning & development departments attended the meeting.
WASA: As much as 1,800 tons of waste from open drains and sewerage pipes in various parts of the city have been desilted during first five days of a crash programme launched to improve the sewerage system, says a press release.
The desilted waste included 432 ton polythene bags, 360 ton stone crush, sand and clay, 306 ton solid waste, 288 ton old clothes, 234 ton mud, 108 ton dead animals, 54 ton old tyres, tubes and hides, and 18 ton old utensils, it claims.
The waste has been dumped at the landfill sites arranged by Wasa in Mahmood Booti and Saggian areas, it adds.