MUZAFFARABAD, April 6: The AJK government has again sought the intervention of the federal government to get the possession of land which was given to the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) temporarily more than 25 years ago, Dawn learnt from sources on Saturday.
The land, situated within the master plan area of the new civil secretariat complex, was given to the FWO in 1976, after the federal government had decided to hand over the construction of major roads in AJK to the army.
The AJK government, according to sources, has maintained that the land, measuring more than 100 kanals, was temporarily given to the FWO on its request for establishment of its camp office, because there was scarcity of office accommodation in Muzaffarabad.
Keeping in view the phased development of the complex, sources said, it was agreed that the FWO would hand over the land to the AJK public works department when the latter would require it for the construction of the secretariat buildings.
In 1980, the roads were given to the AJKPWD but since then the FWO had not vacated the land maintaining that it was undertaking some road construction projects in the district, sources said.
They said currently the FWO was not involved in any major project in the district and there is no justification for it to retain the possession of land. But despite repeated requests by the AJK government, the organization was not vacating the land, they said.
They said there was a pressing need to provide accommodation to secretariat staff, which warranted immediate construction of new blocks, but the presence of FWO’s so-called camp office was a constraint in development.
According to the sources, instead of vacating the land, recently the FWO forcibly took possession of a car parking shed constructed by the PWD for the vehicles of the planning and development department.
The AJK government, sources said, had been corresponding with the FWO through the federal defence ministry for the last three years to get back the possession of the land, but the organization was not paying any heed.