Eviction for Riverfront Project land terrorism: affectees

LAHORE:The eviction of residents under the umbrella of the government-sponsored Ravi Riverfront Urban Project is the worst example of land terrorism, affectees said.

“We will never allow any land mafia to grab our lands”, said Mian Mustafa Rasheed, Provincial General Secretary Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), Punjab along with farmers, residents and industrialists affected by the project in a press conference held at Lahore Press Club here Monday.

He said the government was claiming that through this project billions of dollars investment would be expected from private public partnership but to date, the master plan of the project had not been unveiled. "The government should build a lake in river and build walls on the banks of it first. No work has been done on this; however, land mafia is ready to buy land from the residents for a penny," he said. Mian Mustafa said LDA vice-chairman had been appointed as the spokesperson for the project while he himself had repeatedly stated that the LDA had nothing to do with the project. Information Adviser Firdous Ashiq Awan and LDA vice-chairman said that no notice had been issued to anyone yet.

He said the PML-F had started a campaign that was a part of the ongoing war against mafia inside country. He said India completed a project on the Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, but did not evict citizens, rather built flats along the river for the people who had been living illegally inside the river.

He alleged that provincial information adviser Firdous Ashiq Awan tried to buy journalists by making a statement in a live press conference to involve journalists in the Ravi Urban project, which is very shameful, no one can buy journalists.

"The land mafia wants to take over the graves of our ancestors, our houses, our shops, our mosques under government patronage, which is not acceptable.” Representing the industrialists affected by the project Inam-ul-Haq Butt, Mian Kamran and Mudassar Mehmood said adding "If the government tries to kill us economically and relocate our factories, we will give up our lives, but we will not allow occupation of our lands, our factories".