Committee formed to inspect Landhi cottage industry land, SHC told

A committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of a senior member of the Board of Revenue (BoR) to carry out an inspection of a piece of land in Landhi said to be allocated for a cottage industry and to submit a report on whether the land was meant for the cottage industry and allocated by the KMC and BoR for the same purpose or in violation of such mandate, the chief secretary told the Sindh High Court on Wednesday.

Filing a compliance report on a petition of Nasreen Abu Nasar against an encroachment on the land in the Landhi Cottage Industrial Zone, the chief secretary submitted that a senior member of the board of revenue will be chairman while the municipal commissioner of the KMC and any officer of the Sindh government or the KMC to be nominated by the chairman will be a member of the committee which shall submit a report as per court directives.

The court, after taking the comments on record, directed the committee to file the compliance report by November 27.

The SHC had earlier directed a committee of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and Board of Revenue officials to inspect the piece of land in Landhi.

The petitioners’ counsel, Usman Farooq, submitted that they were allotted the land, but its possession was not being provided to them due to the encroachment and litigation with the revenue department. He submitted that the petitioners be allocated the same land as they had made the complete payment to the KMC.

The KMC submitted that the BoR issued illegal permission to different individuals on the subject land, and as a result it was not in position to demarcate the land. The KMC’s counsel, however, submitted that only a partial payment had been made saying that he would file the receipt as proof.

A counsel for the BoR submitted that the KMC had failed to make the payment of development charges within the stipulated time; therefore, the BoR cancelled the allocation and allocated the land for other purposes.

The court had earlier taken exception to non-compliance with its September 16 order and directed a KMC and BoR committee to inspect the land and submit a report on whether the land was meant for cottage industry and it was allocated by the KMC and BoR for the same purpose or in violation of such mandate. The court had also ordered that subject land be not occupied by anyone.