MUZAFFARABAD, March 13: Dilly-dallying on the part of government officials has compelled the foreign planners of a mega project in the quake-hit capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir to redesign one of its components, but the construction is yet to commence, it has been learnt.

Construction of a shopping mall, which along with office chambers and residential quarters of government employees make up the $37.8 million District Headquarters Complex being built by the Turkish government, had already been delayed.

The delay was initially due to waste of time in demolition of the broken-down Narul Guest House and lately because the authorities concerned were avoiding a prompt and warranted action to acquire/reclaim the private and official land in and around its proposed site, well-placed sources told Dawn.

“While the office buildings and residential quarters are being built speedily, construction of the shopping mall has been inordinately delayed due to the failure of the AJK authorities in handing over the entire piece of land to the Turkish builders on time,” the sources said.

Inaction of the authorities in this regard had compelled the Turkish planners to redesign the mall, the sources said, fearing that the amendments could fade its grandeur.

Interestingly, even in the redesigned plan the land in front of the shopping mall was proposed as parking lot but since it was in the possession of an influential family, the authorities tended to take the warranted action, the sources regretted.

Last week, the district reconstruction advisory committee (DRAC), comprising legislators from Muzaffarabad and relevant government officials, had also deliberated on this issue, deciding that “private land adjacent to the Narul Guest House be acquired and government land under illegal occupation be reclaimed,” according to a copy of its minutes, available with Dawn.

According to sources, a scheme worth Rs220 million had been prepared for acquisition of private as well official land from legal and illegal occupants, including payment of the cost of infrastructure built thereupon.

However, sources conceded, “vested interests were hampering the early implementation of DRAC decisions.”

When contacted, an official of the AJK Public Works Department (PWD), told Dawn that the site of (now demolished) guest house and its adjacent area was acquired by the government in early 70s from private owners, but one family was spared 10 marlas owing to its relationship with a senior PWD official of that time.

However, the same family gradually grabbed nearly 2 kanals and after erecting a boundary wall and made some constructions thereupon, frustrating many attempts by the PWD in the past for its eviction, said the official who declined to be identified fearing it might land him in trouble.

Sources said though the eviction had now become all the more essential, the occupant family was however least bothered, apparently because some mighty people in the ranks of bureaucracy were on its back.

They claimed that when recently some officials made a firm decision to demolish the illegally constructed infrastructure by the said family, they were forbidden by a top bureaucrat.

The PWD official maintained that the government was empowered to acquire any piece of land in public interest even if lawfully owned by any citizen, let alone illegally occupied.

“If everyone is exempted, then a single project cannot be executed anywhere in the quake-affected areas. The government will have to use its authority to acquire the land required for projects of vital national importance,” he said.

However, when contacted by this correspondent, a member of that family claimed that it genuinely owned the whole piece of land.

“Yes the government had awarded this land (in 70s) but we got it de-awarded,” said Sajida Maqsood, but she declined to show any documentary evidence to corroborate her claim.

“You should seek it from those who have fed you the wrong information,” she said.

The Turkish government and some of its NGOs have already executed a number of prestigious projects in Muzaffarabad, including the city campus of AJK University and prefabricated buildings of some other educational institutions, winning laurels from the survivors.

“The shopping centre would be yet another feather in their cap if allowed to be built according to the actual plan,” sources said.