Crackdown on illegal housing societies ordered in Gujranwala

GUJRANWALA: Commissioner Zulfiqar Ahmed Ghumman has directed the district administration, Gujranwala Development Authority and other departments to launch a massive and effective crackdown on illegal and unapproved housing societies in the division.

Chairing a meeting of the Gujranwala Development Authority here on Friday, he said that it was the responsibility of the departments concerned to protect the people from the looting of private housing schemes and any slackness or hesitation in taking concrete action would not be tolerated under any circumstances.

The commissioner made it clear that the sale and purchase of plots by those who wished to set up housing colonies on the basis of preliminary planning approval (PPP) alone was not at all in the public interest and instead some other more appropriate course of action must be adopted to ensure that such sale and purchase of plots could be allowed only after the final approval and sanction of the scheme.

DG GDA Maqbool Ahmed Majoka and Director Town Planning Hafiz Khurram Shahzad said that the GDA had so far given approval to 55 applications for setting up housing schemes in total, adding that approval of 14 schemes was under way while eight schemes had been given preliminary planning permission.