Amendments to LDA Private Housing Schemes Rules reviewed

LAHORE:A meeting was held in the Civil Secretariat chaired by Punjab Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Social Welfare Raja Basharat, attended among others by the Minister for Housing, Mian Mahmood-ul-Rashid, DG LDA and affiliated officers.

According to a press release issued here Friday, the meeting reviewed the proposed amendments to the LDA Private Housing Schemes Rules 2014 and the draft LDA Land Use Rules 2020. LDA officials briefed that no residential scheme could be started without the LDA’s prior permission as per the new amendments while the master plan must be presented to the general public before the scheme is launched.

No other scheme of the name already in the LDA record can be started; however, further phases can be made and in each scheme, keeping at least 7% area open, planting the trees and construction of sidewall will be required.

The amendment also approved that the interior road width of the housing scheme in Lahore should be at least 50 feet and in other districts, the width of the interior road would be at least 25. It is mandatory for low income housing schemes to allocate 5% open area, 2% land for cemetery, 2% land for commercial and 2 to 10% area for public buildings as well as the size of apartments will be confined between 3 to 10 marla. The maximum height of the building could be 60 feet and the minimum width of the internal roads will be 15 feet. Other residential housing schemes will be required to allocate at least 20% area for flats or plots of 3-5 marla, while in order to stop benami properties, it is necessary to inform the LDA about the onward sale or transfer of each plot.

The new amendments will prohibit the advertising or marketing of any type of housing scheme before the payment of required fees and fulfillment of other vital conditions. Clean and Green Campaign to be relaunched: Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has directed various government departments to re-launch Clean and Green Campaign in the provincial capital in March 2020.

In this regard, a meeting was held at the committee room of Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) in which various directions were passed by the Lahore division commissioner to different government departments. Asif Mehmood, adviser to chief minister, PHA Chairman Yasir Gilani, WASA MD Zahid Aziz, LWMC MD Imtiaz Rao and other officials from different departments were also present on the occasion.

The LWMC MD briefed the participants about the different components of Clean and Green Sanitation Week plan prepared by LWMC. He said that the activity would raise the level of awareness among the citizens about cleanliness challenges in view of the climate change by involving the students and other stakeholders i.e. Wasa, PHA and district administration.

Tentative schedule of activities starting from the first week of March was also presented which included activities at Greater Iqbal Park, Fleet March, awareness walk at Faisal Chowk, a seminar in collaboration with Jang Group (MKRMS) and activities at Badshabi Mosque and Lahore Fort.

Other activities include advertisements on cinemas screens, at railways stations and bus terminals. Operational activities include special cleanliness drives along mosques, schools, government offices/building, hospitals and educational institutes in different areas of the city without compromising the routine cleanliness operations.