FAISALABAD, Nov 21: The dwellers of Awami Colony No 2 are living in a fear of losing their houses as the Faisalabad Development Authority (FDA) plans to raze it.
The colony consists of dozens of houses and is located adjacent to Narwala Road. It emerged here in the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto regime. Residents say they have been trying to get ownership rights in the last 40 years but in vain.
The previous government ordered a survey for different colonies to declare such areas Katchi Abadi. Sources said the FDA and the city district government had conducted surveys of such colonies for onward submission to the provincial government to award property rights to poor masses.
Residents say the FDA did not include the colony to be declared Katchi Abadis because of a controversy on the number of houses. The FDA rules that any locality consisting of more than 42 houses can be declared a Katchi Abadi. The FDA says the colony consists of 36 houses while residents claim that colony has 50 houses.
A resident of Awami Colony No 2, Shehzad, told Dawn FDA officials did not conduct any survey of the colony. He said that recently they came to know the FDA had issued a letter to all union council nazims in Nov 2001 asking them to get ownership rights for dwellers of Katchi Abadis in their areas.
The FDA said it would charge Rs172 per marla and Rs1,000 as development charges for proprietary rights. The then nazim, however, did not inform even single resident of the colony about such offer.
FDA officials visited the locality on Nov 12 to demolish the houses, however, they returned seeing the people enraged.
Area people immediately visited their union council nazim seeking his help. The nazim expressed his inability in resolving problem and asked poor people to approach Pakistan Muslim League-N parliamentarians.
The FDA’s decision to raze the colony would affect nearly 100 families living in different parts of the houses ranging from one to three marlas.
“We voted for the Pakistan People's Party to get our rights,” said Shamim Akthar, of the area.
Other residents say that many a times people collected money from dwellers to resolve the issue, but they escaped with the money.
They say they want to pay government dues, but some FDA officials are not ready to see the poor living in the locality as some real estate bigwigs are focusing the area because of its prime location.