Punjab govt seeks: 10-year record of projects completed in Rawalpindi

Rawalpindi: The Punjab government has directed the authorities concerned of Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) to submit a detailed report of funds spent on development projects completed in the city during 2008 to 2018.

Talking to this agency, RDA Chairman Arif Abbasi said that the RDA authorities had been asked to furnish the details of the expenditures incurred on the projects during last 10 years. He said the civic body had files of all the projects but there was no computerized record.

“The RDA officers had been given three weeks’ time to prepare detailed report of the projects which would be sent to the Punjab government,” he added. To a question he said, zero tolerance policy against corruption had been adopted in Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and RDA. All the bill distributors of Wasa had been transferred to different stations, said the Chairman. The authorities concerned had been directed to take solid steps to curb corruption and improve efficiency of both the departments.

He said massive reshuffling had been made in WASA particularly in the lower cadre to improve performance of the authority and address citizens,’ complaints. Abbasi said a crackdown was being planned against the corruption mafia in the civic body responsible for providing water and sanitation to the people of city.

He said the authority would take strict action against the corrupt elements in WASA and no compromise would be made on corruption. To another question he informed that the RDA authorities had been asked to start action against illegal housing societies and check if those given approval by the civic body had fulfilled the criteria or not.

He said many housing societies had also sold plots allocated for parks, schools, colleges and mosques. Under the law, all the facilities should be available in new housing societies otherwise the no-objection certificates (NOCs) would not be issued to them.

“We have planned to upload all the details about the legal, illegal and under process housing societies within the limits of the RDA on its website for the information of the citizens,” he said.

The RDA chairman said he had also directed the RDA to upload the plot allotment forms of housing societies on the RDA website so the owners could not sell extra forms. If a housing society has 1000 plots it would be allowed to sell only 1000 forms verified by the RDA, he added. He said, he had asked the RDA to expedite the work on issuing NOCs to housing societies which had applied and fulfilled the criteria and implement the new rules.