Hundreds of illegal housing societies exposed in Sukkur

Dr Abdul Waheed
SUKKUR: The discovery of hundreds of illegal housing societies in the third largest city of Sindh, land mafia active to squeeze innocent citizens, administration looks totally helpless, society owners have taken multi millions of rupees from the public for development and other charges. Social circles have demanded strict action against these illegal schemes and their internal audit. Despite the presence of various laws, unregulated development of housing societies is increasing which needs to be discouraged. Construction of housing societies on agricultural land needs to be stopped as this trend is detrimental to agriculture.
According to the details, the land mafia has become active for the establishment of housing schemes in Rohri, New Taluka of Sukkur. According to the bylaws made for housing schemes, before the establishment of any housing scheme, it is necessary to register and approve it in the relevant institution, but there are hundreds of illegal housing in the district without proper registration. There are many schemes that are engaged in robbing the simple people, the owners of the most expensive societies in the city receive crores of rupees from the public in terms of development and other charges, but there is a lack of facilities due to which some housing societies have become a hotbed of problems. Due to the support of influential personalities to the land mafia, the administration has also become a picture of helplessness.
The most expensive societies near Bus stand، Deha and Rohri have become victims of mismanagement due to the lack of interest of the administration, despite the fact that the management of the societies have collected crores of rupees from the residents.
Everyone knows that the advertising campaign in the district can be run after paying the bribes to officials of the relevant institutions. The question is, who gives permission to the illegal society to conduct advertising campaigns and sell plots in the district, why and how much?
If a society is illegal, why does the district government and other relevant institutions remain silent from its advertisement campaign to the sale and purchase of files and plots? How can advertisements of housing societies run without taking NOC? Does DC have no responsibility? Do all institutions become facilitators in this act of deceiving the public?
Residents say that the owners of the society received crores of rupees by showing the dreams of Community Center, Hospital, Schools, Parks, Cemetery and other development works. Gradually, they became billionaires, but the dreams of those who wanted plots and built their own houses could not be realized.
In this regard, an official of Sindh Building Control Authority (SCBA) told this scribe on condition of anonymity that there are big crocodiles in the land mafia, the cases of scandals of some cooperative societies have also been sent to NAB.
He further said that there are more than 75 illegal housing societies in the district.
He further told that various societies owners start selling files and plots. People take plots they pay installments for eight to ten years and then they come to know that the society does not have the land. There are 600 plots on the land, but the files have been sold for 2000 plots. The plot is available on the map and its number has been assigned and the street number has also been allotted, but if you go and see it, you will know that this land is owned by someone else and it has not been sold to society. What should the buyer do in such a situation? Can anyone tell him that if the land is not even owned by the society, how was the map made and who passed the map and how was it sold?
Does anyone have any idea why the files are sold? Why are plots not sold outright? If the files are to be sold, shouldn’t the number of plots be equal to the available plots? Can there be no legislation in this context? The question is that how and why are files and even plots sold without NOC? Isn’t this cheating?
No one knows how long the plot will be available after filing. There is no legislation in this regard. If there is a delay in the payment of the installment of the plot, an additional amount is charged as interest or penalty, but if the plot is not received even after 20 years, no one is going to ask them. Citizens are left at the mercy of this mafia. Whether they get a plot or not, it’s their own fate. The government is not interested in it.
People have earned billions of rupees by forming societies on agricultural land – the government should also take action against such people