Absence of permanent DG at helm of affairs in RDA adds to public woes

Rawalpindi

Rawalpindi Development Authority is working without a permanent director general for past three years and his absence is affecting the common people whose grievances most of the time remain unresolved.

Chaudhry Naseer Ahmed, former DG of the authority was removed on January 19, 2014. Since then former District Coordination Officer Sajid Zafar Dall and former Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed looked after the office of RDA.

Now, commissioner, Rawalpindi Azmat Mehmood is looking after RDA affairs till the appointment of a permanent director general.

The officials of RDA have failed to resolve ever-increasing traffic issues in city particularly at Murree Road. The ever-increasing traffic jams are playing with the nerves of public round the clock but nobody is bothered to resolve this issue because of absence of permanent director general of RDA.

In the meantime, all other public related issues particularly illegal housing societies, completion of roads, issuance of NOCs, signal synchronisation and city planning remain pending due to non-serious attitude of RDA staff. The PC-1 for construction of underpass at Mareer Chowk has not been approved for 1 year while motorists are facing hell like situation round the clock.

Similarly, RDA also failed to make Murree Road signal free as higher officials of concerned department assured to make Benazir Bhutto Road signal free.

In absence of a regular boss, work on all roads particularly Rawal Road and several others has been seriously affected. Numberless streets here in the jurisdiction of RDA are in dilapidated condition for years. In the absence of a permanent director general, the authority has also not been able to launch new projects for housing schemes, town planning, traffic engineering and the improvement of existing infrastructure, or compile data of private housing societies for registration.

RDA spokesman Hafiz Muhammad Irfan said that they have planned to establish an underpass at Mareer Chowk to smoothen traffic flow. “We have also planned to make Murree Road signal free, he assured.

According to information, around 71 illegal housing schemes in RDA jurisdiction banned by the orders of Punjab government are openly looting poor public. 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 being run smoothly.

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, Gulberg 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.