China cutting continues to disfigure city

LAHORE:Openly flouting the writ of the government, the land mafia has introduced ‘China Cutting’ in various locations of the provincial metropolis.An investigation carried out by The News revealed that a large number of illegal subdivisions are present in various localities of the city while many are under construction.

A senior Lahore Development Authority (LDA) officer, seeking anonymity, said the term China Cutting means an illegal way of carving out big plots into smaller ones. With certain restrictions, land subdivision is legally allowed in the rules and regulations of the LDA but presently majority of the subdivisions are being done without following those rules and regulations.

China Cutting, as per the officer, can’t be done without the alleged connivance of the officers/officials of the Metropolitan Wing of the LDA. He said Multan Road, Ferozepur Road and many other areas are hub of China Cutting.

He claimed that even in many older city areas such as Samanabad, Chauburji, Rehmanpura, Ichhra, Shadman etc the big plots are being cut into smaller dimensions and there is no one to stop this practice. Recently, the scribe pointed out an illegal land subdivision to LDA’s Chief Metropolitan Planner (CMP) Faisal Qureshi but he didn’t reply back. This land subdivision is situated near an LDA housing scheme where road network, sewerage and other development works are completed and now they have started selling plots of small dimensions (2, 3 and 5 marlas) while some houses are also under construction at the site.

Similarly, another illegal land subdivision is present near Marghazar Colony where the owner(s) are constructing 70 to 80 houses in a plot of around eight kanal. Another illegal land subdivision is present on the main Multan Road and construction of houses is started here too.

On the other hand, the general practice in the MP wing is that a sponsor/owner used to submit the file of his land subdivision for approval and immediately started carrying out development works at the site, selling of plots and construction of houses, which was an illegal act.

As per Lahore Development Authority Private Housing Schemes Rules, Chapter-II titled ‘Application for approval’ said that “The sponsor shall not initiate any development activity without obtaining approval from the Authority.”

The MP wing is supposed to be vigilant and immediately report such activities to another department DEM (PHS), which has the power to demolish the ongoing illegal construction work but ironically, the DEM (PHS) is not informed timely.

In case of a housing scheme (HV), the scribe talked to the Director DEM (PHS) who stated that he was not informed by the MP wing concerned about this scheme and he can’t take any action on his own. The scribe later contacted M Nafees, Director MP wing and asked about the status of subdivision (HV) on which he said the file of the said subdivision is submitted but not approved. Over a question about informing DEM (PHS) about this illegal subdivision, he said so far no letter was written about this scheme. Sources in LDA claimed that this was the normal practice in the LDA that after a complaint or query, the MP wing, to save their skin and fill the file to avoid any departmental action in future, immediately wrote letters to the sponsor/developer and other LDA wings. Sources added that LDA always avoided to take action against big fish due to political pressure. In this case, the scribe visited the site, took pictures of the illegal land subdivision and also sent them to the LDA Director General Tahir Farooq who vowed to inquire the matter and take immediate action.

But the big question is that is there any authority who can take a suitable action against the officers concerned who ignore/neglect/hide the illegal land subdivisions, which have changed the face of the provincial metropolis?