ISLAMABAD, Sept 28: A row between the National Assembly Standing Committee on the Cabinet and Capital Development Authority (CDA) surfaced over utilisation of 300 kanals of land in Behka Syedan village located in the centre of Sector F-11, one of the posh residential areas in the federal capital, inside sources told Dawn on Wednesday.
The row emerged as the NA Standing Committee on the Cabinet finalised its report on the issue and directed the CDA to handover the land to the committee formed by the locals so that they might take decision about the utilisation of the disputed land.
On the other hand, the city managers were of the view that the land was meant for the existing shrine of saint Sakhi Muzammil Shah and graveyard therefore, it could not be utilised for any other purpose and it could not be turned into residential or commercial area.
“The report of the standing committee is itself contradictory to its own findings,” said a senior CDA official on condition of anonymity.
One of the findings in the report suggested that the CDA should exclude 300 kanals of land of Behka Syedan from its original award (compensation for the land acquired by the authority).
In the same report, standing committee recommended that the CDA should allot plots to the remaining land holders who had not obtained compensation in 300 kanals area.
However, the CDA maintained that according to the law, it could not exclude the area from the main award and could not allot plots to the affected
people as they had already been availed themselves of the compensation in shape of cash and alternate plots in the same F-11 sector.
“We will again go to the standing committee and will ask its members to remove contradictory and disputed points in the report,” the official said.
He said earlier the CDA had planned to develop a park on the controversial land but the plan was shelved because the authority could not change the status of graveyard.
A few months ago, the CDA quashed the balloting for the allotment of plots worth millions of rupees to the remaining (left over) affected people of Bheka Sayedan after detecting a series of serious malpractices during balloting.
The balloting, which the CDA did on June 3, 2011 under main award of 1st October 1985, was quashed on the grounds that it was not done in a transparent manner, reveals an official document and accordingly it asks for conducting a fresh and transparent balloting within a week under the supervision of Director Land and Rehabilitation of CDA.
The alleged malpractices showed that 62 plots in sector F-11 and 63 plots in sector I-10 had been placed in balloting. But, in reality only 12 plots of sector I-10 were placed in slips while out of 54 affected people only six got plots in the less attractive sector I-10, whereas all others have got allotment in posh sector F-11.
Different sizes of slips were used for sector F-11 and sector I-10 plots and no plot numbers were written on the slips at the time of balloting and this was done by the concerned staff of CDA later on.
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