LAHORE:Provincial Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Cooperatives Raja Basharat has said that government lands will be recovered from the land mafia at all costs and strict legal action will be taken against the grabbers and their agents.
He said this while presiding over a meeting at Punjab Cooperatives Liquidation Board (PCLB) office on Friday. "The Punjab government will enact the necessary legislations to remove the barriers and enhance performance of PCLB."
The meeting reviewed the performance and problems of the PCLB in detail. He said that Punjab Chief Minister Usman Bazdar has directed that effective steps be taken to recover government land from illegal occupants.
He directed the chairman to take all possible steps for recovery of outstanding loans, the report of which should also be sent to him every week. He also directed that the process of transparent auction of litigation-free properties be started immediately.
Earlier, in a briefing given by Chairman Board Tariq Mahmood Javed and other officers, it was informed that the board is receiving an annual rent of Rs 60 m for its properties across the province while out of the total loans of Rs 6 billion, Rs 4 billion are still pending. The chairman also said that out of the 297 properties of the board, 110 are available for immediate auction while the remaining properties are subject to court cases.
7,000 tons of waste lifted: Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) started picking waste with ordinary tractor-trolleys on Friday. The waste lifting process was on the halt for the past many days due to strike of sanitary workers.
On Friday, Imran Ali Sultan, LWMC’s CEO himself remained in field and monitored all operations. He directed all the staff to remain in field till the successful completion of zero waste operation in every nook and corner of the city. The Sunday holiday of all the officers and workers has also been cancelled. CEO LWMC stated that maintaining cleanliness in the city is the top priority and LWMC has cleared mostly points of the city. Till now more than 7000 tons of waste has been lifted during the ongoing operation, he added.
Spokesperson LWMC stated that citizens should also participate and play their role in proper disposal of solid waste whereas they can always dial LWMC helpline 1139 for their waste-related complaints or can use mobile-based application Clean Lahore.
