Senators monitoring the affairs of private and cooperative housing schemes in the capital territory have said that infrastructure development for such projects must not take place without the authorities’ clearance.
A subcommittee of the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet, headed by Senator Shahid Hassan Bugti, in a recent meeting directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) that no housing society should start work without issuance of a No Objection Certificate (NOC).
Though NOC is already mandatory under the CDA by-laws, still neither the civic agency nor the societies follow this law, causing financial and administrative irregularities in the affairs of the housing schemes.
According to the CDA rules, managements of housing schemes have to get approved their layout plans as a first step towards developing a project. At this stage, the authority’s planning wing provides a list of conditions which must be met to obtain a final NOC.
One of the basic requirements for obtaining the NOC is the purchase of a compact piece of land (400 kanals in Zone-V and 800 kanals in Zone-II), of which 30 per cent is mortgaged with the CDA.
It has been observed that most of the housing societies start development work without purchasing the required land and cheat their members by giving wrong information.
However, a senior official of the CDA’s planning wing told Dawn that “there are only a few societies which started development work without purchasing the required land.”
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was a general practice in the authority that NOCs were granted to the housing societies after the approval of their engineering plans.
It has been learnt that out of total 55 functional cooperatives and private housing schemes in the federal capital, 18 have acquired NOCs from the CDA.
According to the law all cooperatives housing societies are registered with the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration, and those launched by private firms are registered with the CDA.
Many believe that though the overall performance of both cooperatives and private housing schemes are not up to the mark, it is far better than that of the civic agency.
Of total 55 housing societies/schemes, 18 have obtained NOCs and housing has started there. They are:
Private Schemes: Margalla View Housing Scheme, OPF Housing Scheme, River Gardens Housing Scheme, R.P. Corporation Housing Scheme, New Islamabad Garden Housing Scheme and Zaraj Housing Scheme.
Cooperative Societies: Multi-Professional Cooperatives Housing Scheme, Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Housing Scheme, Civilians Cooperative Housing Scheme, Ahbab Cooperative Housing Scheme, Cabinet Division Cooperative Housing Scheme, Federation of Employees Cooperative Housing Scheme, National Police Foundation Cooperative Housing Scheme, OGDC Officers Cooperative Housing Society, Doctors Cooperatives Housing Scheme, Federal Shariat Court Cooperative Housing Scheme and T&T Employees Cooperative Housing Society.
Rest of the registered cooperatives societies and private housing schemes are Accounts Group Officers Cooperative Housing Society, CBR Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Civilian Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Foreign Office Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Islamabad Cooperative Housing Society, IB Employees Cooperative Housing Society, KRL Employees Cooperative Housing Society, PWD Employees Cooperative Housing Society, PAEC Employees Cooperative Housing Society, National Assembly Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Senate (Sectt) Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Work No Word Cooperative Housing Society, Pakistani Professionals Cooperative Housing Society, Baltistan Cooperative Housing Society, Islamabad; Christian Multipurpose Cooperative Housing Society, Engineers Cooperative Housing Society, Islamic University Staff Cooperative Housing Society, Islamabad; Ministry of Interior Employees Cooperative Housing Society, NIE Employees Cooperative Housing Society, OGDC Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Pakistan Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Pakistan Medical Cooperative Housing Society, PARC Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Services Cooperative Housing Society, State life Insurance Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Veterans Cooperative Housing Society, Wapda Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Ministry of Religious Affairs Cooperative Housing Society, FIA Employees Cooperative Housing Society and ICI Employees Cooperative Housing Society.
Courtesy: Dawn - June 14, 2010
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