Land to be purchased at Rs1m per kanal from single owner for Islamabad Prison

[LahoreEstate]

Sunday, August 23, 2009
Muhammad Anis

Islamabad

The government is all set to purchase 1,200 kanals of land at a price as high as one million rupees per kanal in Zone-IV for construction of Islamabad prison.

The requisition of the land for this government project would cost nearly Rs1.2 billion to be paid from the national exchequer.

The Ministry of Interior has also given approval for acquiring the land in Malot area near Kurri Road on strong recommendation from Chief Commissioner Islamabad Fazeel Asghar.

The chief commissioner, when contacted by ‘The News’, confirmed that the price for acquisition of 1,200 kanals of land had been fixed at around one million rupees per Kanal and his recommendation had also been approved by the Ministry of Interior.

Fazeel Asghar said the ministry after approving the PC-1 has forwarded the case to Central Development Working Party (CWDP) to seek funding from Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

The land purchase deal may raise many eye brows as the whole land belong to one single person whose name is yet to be made public.

It is merit mentioning here that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) had fixed a price of Rs835,000 per kanal for acquisition of land for Sector C-13, C-14 and C-15 while Rs810,000 per kanal was fixed for sectors D-13, D-14 and D-15. But in case of sectors, the CDA recovers the amount paid to affected people from persons who are allotted plots in the sectors on launching of residential schemes. The survey of the area conducted by ‘The News reveals that the rate of land near the area in Zone-IV where the land for the prison is being acquired is not more Rs600,000.

Chief Commissioner Islamabad in his recommendation had said that as land belong to a single person, therefore, it would be easy to acquire the same quite easily. “I am not aware of the name of owner but it belongs to one person,” he said.

The cost of recommended land was compared with another land falling in Sector H-11. In Sector H-11, the cost of land was shown above Rs1.2 million and it was recommended that the land located in Zone-IV is suited for the project.

He denied the impression when asked if the land is being purchased at a high price only to favour a particular person. “This is the best area available for a project like prison in Islamabad,” he said. Regarding fixing of price of the land to be paid to the owner, he said the fixation was based on monitoring on ongoing sale and purchase in the surrounding area.

The sources said that on one hand the government has imposed a major cut on all development programmes while on the other hand, such an expensive land is being purchased which has no return to the government kitty.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=194430