Forced Land Acquisition No More Possible In Capital After Act Amendment: Federal Planning Minister Asad Umar
ISLAMABAD – Federal Planning Minister Asad Umar has said that the Capital Development Authority Act 1960 has been amended and from now on, no one will be allowed to impose section 4 to acquire land for housing societies.
While addressing a press conference here, the minister said the government was also planning to switch to metered water consumption to check the wastage of water in the city.
For the development of Islamabad, vast power was bestowed upon CDA for land acquisition, under the CDA act, but now the act has been amended, said Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar here Wednesday.
Flanked by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on CDA Affairs Ali Nawaz Awan and Member of National Assembly Raja Khurrum Nawaz, the planning minister said that the PTI government had resolved a long-standing issue of the local residents of Islamabad by amending the CDA Act 1960 under which the government or any other would not be able to acquire land from the locals for housing society purposes. He said that the CDA act was used for the distribution of the land of local people among the power segment of the society. Asad Umar said in the past, a number of powerful elements including politicians, journalists, and civil and military bureaucrats had benefited from this law and became billionaires. He said this section should have been omitted decades ago.
Now onwards, nobody would be allowed to acquire land for housing society from the locals by imposing section 4 of the CDA Act, he said. The minister further said that the land which had already been acquired under Section 4 and payment had not yet been made would also be considered null and void as now the payment would be made on the basis of the market price. He said in order to determine the market price of the land, a committee comprising of representatives from CDA and ICT had been formed.
He said that one by one they are fulfilling all the elections. The minister said the commitment of making one Islamabad instead of two was also going to be fulfilled as the legislation to provide equal development opportunities to all sectoral and non-sectoral areas of the city was going to be accomplished soon. He said the government had announced a development package worth Rs4.5 billion for the rural areas of the city out of which development schemes worth Rs1.5 billion had already been approved and work had been started.