MDA told to start work on housing scheme for displaced people

While presiding over a meeting to finalise the development of a township in Taiser Town for the people affected by the demolitions along the Gujjar, Mehmoodabad and Orangi nullahs in the city, Sindh Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar on Thursday directed the local government department to get the development scheme started for the resettlement drive.

The meeting was held at the CM House and attended by Local Government Minister Mubin Jumani, Law Minister Omar Soomro, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Dr Fakhre Alam, Local Government Secretary Manzoor Shaikh, Finance Secretary Kazim Jatoi, Law Secretary Ali Ahmad Baloch, Karachi Commissioner Saleem Rajput, Malir Development Authority (MDA) Director General Naseem Sahto and others.

The local government secretary told the meeting that a piece of 137.74 acres had been allocated for the 6,500 affected people of the Gujjar, Mehmoodabad and Orangi drains in Taiser Town Scheme 45, Sector 16 of the MDA.

The Sindh government would allot a plot measuring 80 square yards to each affected person/family and after handing over the possession of the plot, with title and free from all encumbrances, the cost of house construction would also be paid to the affected persons, the meeting was told.

The CM directed the MDA to engage an architect in order to ensure proper development of the housing scheme for the people affected by the anti-encroachment drive along the city’s drains.

He directed the MDA to develop a park, playground, school and mosque in the housing scheme and equip it with all the utility facilities such as gas, water and electricity.

Justice (retd) Baqar directed the finance department to release the funds so that the inner and outer development of the housing scheme could be started. He added that he would personally visit the area to ascertain if the quality work was being done.

The CM directed the MDA to start the development work and try to get it completed within six months. “We are already very late to accommodate the affected people and now it must be done on a war-footing basis,” he said.