LDA panel to check frauds in plots’ sale by scheme developers

LAHORE: In a bid to protect the public at large from the fraudulent practices in sale of plots, allegedly on part of the developers of legal and illegal private housing societies, and improve the enforcement mechanism to effectively regulate such schemes, the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has formed a working group comprising seven members.

The group has also been assigned the task of reviewing the management structure of the high-rise buildings in the city, Dawn has learnt.

“Pursuant to the approval granted by the LDA director general, a working group is hereby constituted to examine the issues related to enforcement mechanism of the private housing societies,” reveals a notification issued here on Tuesday.

The group members include additional director general (housing, convenor of the group), director to LDA director general (Headquarters), chief metropolitan officer, chief town planner, director (Master Planning), director (Law/High Court) and senior legal advisor.

According to the Terms of Reference (TORs), the group will review the existing enforcement laws and regulations and suggest amendments (if required), propose improvements in the enforcement mechanism, especially in context of jurisdiction of the directorate of estate management (private housing schemes), review overall monitoring and enforcement mechanism in context of illegal housing schemes, suggest regulatory framework to curb tendency of overselling of plots by developers, suggest mechanism for monitoring management of the developed housing societies and role of the regulator in post-development phase, analyse the management structures of the high-rise buildings and suggest resident-friendly management rules and check any other issues related with the aforementioned TORs.

“The working group shall recommend improvements in existing enforcement regime, as well as suggest ways and means to ensure fair management of developed housing societies and high-rise buildings. The group shall also take input of the representatives of the association of builders and developers (ABAD), private housing societies and experts and submit its report, preferably within one week positively,” the notification sent to as many as 12 senior officers, including heads of various wings and directorates and the group members on the orders of the LDA DG.

It merits mentioning that the LDA had earlier, during the second week of the ongoing month, reactivated and reconstituted a committee to scrutinise cases of the private housing schemes and land sub-divisions (small schemes). Led by the LDA additional DG (Housing), the committee members included all the directors and deputy directors of the metropolitan planning (MP) wing, assistant directors (MP) concerned, director (law) and any others co-opted by the committee. Constituted in July last year, the committee, later rendered dormant or abolished, had a key role in giving final recommendation to the LDA DG to approve the housing schemes. After de-activation of the committee, the LDA chief metropolitan planner (CMP) was asked to directly submit the cases related to grant of technical approval of the layout plans of all private housing schemes to the DG, eliminating an important filter to scrutinise the cases.

Official sources say the core objective behind reactivating this committee is to streamline the approval process of the private housing schemes seeking technical approval of their layout plans and landlocked status of land subdivisions in the light of the prevailing rules and regulations and master plan. It was also entrusted with the task to examine site position and estimation of penalty (if applicable), NOCs/clearance required for technical approval, litigation and settlement of objections etc.

ROOFTOP GARDENING: In a meeting of the Judicial Water and Environment Commission, the LDA DG/Lahore Commissioner Mohammad Ali Randhawa apprised the commission chairman Syed Kamal Haider about the measures taken for environmental protection in the ongoing development works in the city.

“Various measures, including rooftop gardening, are being taken to minimise environmental pollution by fully implementing the court orders. The LDA, the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA), traffic police, Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore (MCL) and others will work together in this regard,” Mr Randhawa said during the meeting.

He said a timeline would be given to all the departments to implement the instructions given by the court. The commissioner said that operations would be conducted to eliminate encroachments from greenbelts in the city.

“The MCL, LDA and PHA will together ensure protection of the greenbelts and greenery. Moreover, the traffic police and Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (Tepa) are working together to ensure smooth traffic flow around the development projects. Concrete measures are also being taken to promote rooftop gardening under corporate social responsibility,” he explained. “All departments are working together at Samanabad underpass and Akbar Chowk projects,” he added.

He said that expert consultants from the private sector would be hired on court orders to take environment-friendly measures. “I have also directed the officers concerned to critically check all such cases to eliminate any chance of illegality. In this way, we may also be able to improve governance,” the DG claimed.

CLEANLINESS: The 15-day zero-waste “Safai Nisf Eman” campaign launched by the Punjab government, has been completed in Lahore.

As per spokesperson of the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), during the campaign, extraordinary cleaning measures were taken throughout the city. As a result, more than 60,000 tonnes of waste has been disposed of, he adds.

In addition to this, more than 4,916 tonne other sorts of waste was collected. More than 2,000 tonne green waste was also collected for the preparation of compost.

“274 union councils of Lahore were declared “zero waste UCs,” he said, adding that more than 504 open plots were also cleared in various towns for the convenience of citizens.

He claimed that during the campaign, more than 3,280 complaints were immediately redressed, 903 challans were issued against illegal dumping of garbage, while five vehicles involved in illegal dumping of garbage were taken into custody, besides registration of six FIRs against the violators.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2023