LDA issues standard process to ease plot transfer

[Salman]

LAHORE

IN order to facilitate the general public in the matter of transfer of a plot in any regular scheme of Lahore Development Authority (LDA), the authority has issued revised Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) for No Objection Certificate (NOC) in LDA schemes.

Sources said the authority had circulated the newly made SOPs to all its directorates and directed them to observe revised Standard Operating Procedure in letter and spirit. Sources said the NOC shall be valid for transfer for one year from the date of its issuance.

According to the office order, an application for NOC shall accompanied a copy of transfer letter/ownership document(s) issued in the name of the owner, attested Copy of CNIC, paid challan for process fee and copy of Completion Certificate (if available); otherwise, proof of valid building period.

The office order stated that the process fee as approved by the competent authority shall be deposited in the specified bank through a challan form which will be prepared by the Revenue Directorate at the one-window on presentation of application. The original paid challan of the process fee will be attached by the applicant along with the application.

The challan form shall also include a disclaimer that in case of discovery of any issue/problem in the ownership, the amount deposited as process fee shall be forfeited. In case, where the fee has been forfeited wrongly, then once the applicant has proven beyond doubt that his forfeiture was wrong; the director concerned shall allow reversal of forfeiture.

It maintained that from one-window, after the preliminary scrutiny, the application and the relevant documents shall be sent to the directorate concerned. In case of exempted plot, the application shall be sent to the Director Land Development concerned and in case of allotted plot the application shall be forwarded to the Director Estate Management concerned.

To further clarify, the order said the procedure laid down below is general guidelines for genuine files/transaction. In case if the director concerned finds anything dubious, he/she can order to verify the authenticity of a file/plot/transaction and to curtail the chances of fraud, seek information from any other relevant department. The scrutiny should be completed at the earliest possible. In such cases, director one-window should be informed immediately so that the applicant can be informed regarding the on-going scrutiny.

In case of exempted plot, the Director Land Development shall within three days report regarding double exemption, building period, number of earlier transfers and PTM etc on the concerned property file and forward the same to the Director Land Acquisition/LAC for ownership verification report.

In case of allotment file, the concerned Director Estate Management shall within six days report regarding site report, physical possession, balloting, exchange, CM Quota Summary verification etc whichever scenario is applicable. For exempted plots, the Director Land Acquisition/LAC shall also report within three days regarding the ownership/title and forward the property file to Directorate of Estate Management.

The order said that the Directorate of Estate Management shall report regarding site report and physical possession and send the file to the Town Planning Wing. The Town planning Wing shall report regarding completion certificate or building plan approval whichever is applicable within two days and send the file to the Directorate of Revenue. In case of allotted plot, the report of Director Land Acquisition/LAC is not required so the relevant Director Estate Management shall send the file after its report to the Town planning Wing which shall report regarding completion certificate or building plan approval whichever is applicable within two days and send the file to Directorate of Estate Management concerned for site report and physical possession. From there the file shall then be sent to Directorate of Revenue.

The Directorate of Revenue, on the basis of information provided on the file, shall verify that no amount is outstanding. In case of no outstanding amount, steps narrated at serial No. 14, 15, 16 shall not be followed. However, where some amount is outstanding against the applicant, the Directorate of Revenue shall generate a challan accordingly and send it to the one-window. In case, some amount which is shown to have been deposited but is not verified from the computerised general ledger, the case file shall be referred to the directorate concerned (DLD or DEM) to authenticate the transaction and approve recovery of the such amount in line with policy formulated for verification of amount deposited before 1.07.1989. The DLD or DEM concerned shall then send the file back to the Directorate of Revenue to generate a challan accordingly. The Directorate of Revenue shall also verify the deposit challan for process fee and will not take more than three days to complete this exercise.

Once the applicant has deposited the outstanding dues, he/she will submit the deposit challan at the one window and the same shall be sent to the directorate concerned. The directorate concerned shall on the same day forward the paid challan to the Directorate of Revenue for Challan verification. The Directorate of Revenue shall verify the payment and return the verified amount to the Directorate concerned within three days.

The directorate concerned shall then send the No Objection Certificate to the Security Feature Paper Wing for printing within three days. The No Objection Certificate shall also clearly specify the number of transfers made earlier. It concluded that after printing on the Security Featured Paper, the NOC shall be sent to the directorate concerned where it shall be signed, office copy shall be retained and the applicant’s copy shall be dispatched to the one window in two days time. A copy of NOC shall also be sent to Director Computer Services for updating it on-line for future reference.