ISLAMABAD: On Wednesday, residents of Model Town Humak asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to take action against the town’s accused land squatters.
As per the details, residents of Humak reported to the police that the land that CDA had planned and purchased for the town had been invaded by encroachers, but the civic body did not respond.
They said that the land speculators had built a wall to protect their illegitimate hold of public property.
The Director General (DG) of civic authority Rafia Haider, the Director General (DG) of Water Management Sardar Khan Zimri, and other officials presided over the open court, along with Member Environment Mohammad Waqas Hanif.
The locals said that after building a wall around the CDA land, the suspected land speculators were now attempting to encroach into the town’s cemetery as well.
Residents claimed that this town is a CDA-approved society and that its layout plan displays areas designated for a cemetery, playground, school, green space, and other amenities.
One of the residents informed CDA that the land mafia had an FIR issued against them when they showed resistance to encroachments, showing how powerful the land grabbers were.
According to the resident planning, CDA will take appropriate legal action after receiving the written application from the inhabitants.
Meanwhile, at the sideline of the open court, the residents stated that if CDA was not interested in reclaiming its acquired land worth billions of rupees, then the civic agency should return the land to locals, instead of leaving it for land grabbers.
The enforcement branch of the municipal agency has recently undertaken two operations and destroyed the barriers at the encroached land site, in addition to filing an FIR against the land grabbers.
Surprisingly, the wall has been rebuilt with the suspected complicity of CDA officials, which raises several problems, a resident claimed.
Besides, the locals claimed that massive construction in the nearby Defense Housing Authority (DHA), which shares boundaries with Model Town Humak, has led the price of land to soar dramatically in recent years.
They said that as property values rose, land squatters became more aggressive in encroaching on CDA’s territory.
