Absence of regular RDA DG adds to public woes

Rawalpindi

Although departmental staff and other high ranking officials are quite relaxed due to absence of a permanent director general at the Rawalpindi Development Authority, but those who are missing him the most are common people, as their grievances remain unaddressed for the past almost two years. 

Chaudhry Naseer Ahmed, former DG of the authority was removed in January 2014. Since then former District Coordination Officer Sajid Zafar Dall and former Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed looked after the office of RDA. Similarly only a few days ago, Azmat Mahmood, was appointed Rawalpindi Commissioner a few days ago and would also oversee RDA affairs until a permanent director general is appointed.

In the meantime, all public related issues particularly illegal housing societies, completion of roads, issuance of NOCs and signal synchronization remain pending due to non-serious attitude of RDA staff.

In absence of a regular boss, work on all roads particularly Adiala Road, Airport Road, High Court Road and several others has been seriously affected. Numberless streets here in the jurisdiction of RDA including Defence Road, Saleha Street, Munawar Colony etc are in dilapidated condition for years.

Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) Sub-Engineer (Roads) Muhammad Naeem admitting all facts said that they were busy in completion of ongoing projects. The higher authorities are keenly monitoring our progress, he claimed.

Similarly, 71 illegal housing schemes in RDA jurisdiction banned by the orders of Punjab government are openly looting poor. On the orders of Punjab government, the city district government, Rawalpindi took legal action according to the Punjab Land Subdivision-Private Housing Scheme Rules 2010. Through a notification, the Punjab government ordered all local managements to stop ‘registry’ and ‘transfer’ of plots in illegal housing societies. Illegal housing colonies neither have NOC nor any other legal document to run the projects in this regard. However, all their matters are smoothly running.

RDA sources told this scribe that as many as 27 illegal housing societies are still functioning in the jurisdiction of Rawal Town including Gulshan-e-Ali along Adiala Road, Gulf City along Chakri Road, Fazal Town along Airport Road, Lake Vista along Kalyal Road, Al Muslim Estate along Adiala Road, Airport Employees Society along Airport Road, New University Town along Chakri Road, National Town along Chakri Road, Gulshan-e-Iqbal along Dhamial Road, Jinnah Town along Adiala Road, Samarzar along Adiala Road, Khayaban-e-Millat along Adiala Road, Gulbarg Town along Adiala Road, Lawyers Cooperative Housing Society along Airport Road at Chaklala, Gulshan-e-Babar along Adiala Road, Shahpur Town along Adiala Road, Ibrahim Villas along Adiala Road, Saleha Villas along Adiala Road, SS Marketing along Adiala Road, Sanober City along Adiala Road, Chaudhry Khalid Mehmood Housing Colony at Dhoke Chaudhrian, Malik Afaq Colony at Dhoke Kala Khan, Extension Airport Housing Society along Airport Road, Palm City at Dhoke Chaudhrian, Lawyers Town at Chaklala, Radio Colony along Adiala Road and Garden Township along Chak Beli Khan Road.

Similarly, a total of 44 illegal housing colonies exist in the Potohar Town jurisdiction, which are Al-Badar Motorway City, Night Forman City, Gulshan-e-Mustafa, Jammu and Kashmir Housing Society, Khyber Model Town, Sara Town, Al-Ibrahim City, SSR & Co, Al-Jannat City, Al Harmain Town, Heaven Garden, Ali Maula Motorway City, Classic City, Dubai City, Rawalpindi Green City, Gulshan-e-Shahryar, Gulshan-e-Subhan, Gulshan-e-Muhammadi, Gulshan-e-Batgram, Hina Town, Indus City, Islamabad Green Valley, Jafria Town, Khan Model Town, Khyber City, Khyber Garden, Neelum Valley, Motorway View City, National Agro City, New Islamabad City, New Islamabad Farming, PARC Housing Society, Peace City, Pindi Dairy, Qurtaba City, Qurtaba Farming, Rawal Garden, Saad Town, Saleh Town, Sanam Valley, Usama Town, Inayat City and Voller City.

In a statement, Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) Director Metropolitan Jamshed Aftab said that they have strictly warned the public not to purchase land or plot in these illegal housing colonies because they are fraudulent. “I have sent full information about illegal housing colonies to the revenue department and directed them not to ‘register’ or ‘transfer’ land or plot in these housing societies,” he claimed. He also said that they are continuously taking action against these illegal housing colonies.