Model Town Society’s first-ever savings: Most residents yet to get share

[LRE]

Model Town Society’s first-ever savings: Most residents yet to get share

* MTS acting president says B, E, F and J block residents paid, government stopped further payments
* Says administration considering going to court or meeting CM over issue

By Afnan Khan

LAHORE: Model Town residents are thronging the office of the Model Town Society (MTS) administration because it has not yet completed the distribution of the society’s first-ever savings among the members.

MTS Acting President Nawab Tahir Ali Khan told Daily Times that the administration had promised to pay each member Rs 15,000, and had paid the residents of B, E, F and J blocks. However, he added, the Co-operatives Department registrar office had stopped the administration from handing out any more money, saying that it was not authorised to pay anything to the residents.

To court: He said, “We are still determined to pay the residents their share, and are considering going to court against the government or discussing the matter with the chief minister.”

He said there were 3,600 registered members of MTS, but some of them had passed away and some were not living in the society, so after the short-listing, the society had prepared a list of 2,700 members who would be paid equally. He said the money was saved from the resident’s taxes and the society’s revenue generation sources and they had the right to get the savings back. He said the administration would not pay those who were using residences for commercial purposes illegally or those who had not paid their utility bills or taxes on time.

Residents are not happy with the delay and are accusing the administration of nepotism. They said that the payment of the savings had been delayed only for those who had no personal contacts in the administration.

Naseer Baig, a resident, said his neighbour in the F-Block had already received the amount promised, but he had not. He said he had visited the administration’s office many times, but had yet to receive any payment. He said all members had paid equal amounts of taxes and the profits should also be shared among them equally.

Fehmida Begum, another resident, said she had visited the MTS office several times, but after being refused each time “because of some government order”, she decided to forget the whole affair. She said she was a registered member, but was denied her right. “I don’t understand why the government is stopping the society from paying us our share of the profits when it had no objection to receiving taxes from us,” she said.

The Co-operatives Department registrar could not be contacted for comment.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg13_1