ISLAMABAD, Dec 24: The record of the allotment of 500 additional plots in Sector D-12 is missing from the Capital Development Authority (CDA), sources told Dawn on Wednesday.
They said the CDA had already announced the award of compensation for the local landholders in 1988 but with the passing of time ‘more’ awards were also announced to acquire land and compensate villagers.
The controversial award whose record is missing was announced in April this year. It was opposed at many forums and there were reports that some bogus claims were also included to favour some people.
However, the CDA’s Director Land Asadullah Faiz has denied that the record was missing, adding that complete details of the compensation in Sector D-12 was intact and safe.
Another senior official of the land directorate confirmed that the record was missing, but similar record of compensation was preserved in other sections of the directorate.
“The missing record was like a survey report conducted to ascertain the number of structures on ground,” the official said.
The sources said it was the basic record on whose basis formal record was prepared and compensation given to landholders. They said an inquiry had been ordered to probe how the record was taken away and for what purpose.
The original award of the sector in 1988 was for 400 affected people. Later the list of claimants continued to swell with the passage of time and later three more awards were announced.
The sources confirmed that non-acquisition of land was badly hampering the development work of Sector D-12 opened by the CDA 18 years ago.
The sector belongs to Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) and plots of the sector were allotted to the government employees. But, later over 50 federal secretaries and some other grade 21 officials acquired plots in the same sector on the directives of former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. The size of each plot is 10 marlas and its cost is about Rs2 to Rs2.5 million.
Now, non-development of the sector was not only troubling the ordinary employees but also the top bureaucracy.
The sources said the contractor who was developing the sector could not work in the area where the villagers were residing causing delay in its completion.
On the other hand some villagers said the CDA had so far not paid them total compensation of their land and ‘built-up property’ therefore they could not allow the sector’s development.
Sector D-12 is being developed mainly on the site of two villages Pind Sangrial and Siri Saral. It has become a controversial sector as it could not be developed even after 18 years since the project was approved. A deadly clash took place between the villagers and officials of the CDA and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration in 2002 in which two villagers were killed.