KARACHI, May 25: The land mafia has become active in Taiser Town and encroached upon land in the area but to one’s surprise the relevant authorities are taking no action to check the activities of these unscrupulous elements, alleges a social activist.

The activist, Tasneem Ahmad Siddiqui, who is also the chief of Saiban, a non-governmental organisation that has established Khudi Ki Basti, a housing project for the poor in Taiser Town, feared that once people purchased plots from the land mafia, they would prove to be an additional burden on the overall infrastructure developed by and for the residents of Khuda Ki Basti.

Elaborating, he said that people of the basti had on a self-help basis generated funds to pay for the KESC lines under the power utility’s self-finance scheme for the electrification of their settlement. However, now a large number of illegal connections (kundas) could be seen hooked to the basti’s power supply lines and electrifying a number of the new settlements in the area.

Mr Siddiqui was of the view that these illegal connections were putting an additional burden of the power supply infrastructure of the basti and if the situation continued unchecked the system could collapse anytime.

Recalling his visit to the area some ten years ago to launch the Khuda Ki Basti project, he said that there were only three villages then, Rozi Goth, Khair Mohammad Goth and probably Juma Goth, but over the years many other villages had sprung up particularly during the last one and a half year, while the old settlements had also expanded.

He deplored that despite approaching various government and private organisations, no action had so far been initiated against the land mafia heavily engaged in encroaching upon the land in Taiser Town and fleecing innocent people.

Mr Siddiqui told Dawn that he had written a letter to the Karachi Electric Supply Compnay (KESC) dated November 28, 2007 saying that “… large scale land-grabbing and its sale to innocent purchasers are taking place around Khuda Ki Basti. Only a few months back there were two small villages — Rozi and Juma goths — with 15 to 20 households but some unscrupulous persons have started selling plots after illegally occupying the state’s land …. We spent about Rs17.5 million on the electric system, but the encroachers are freely stealing electricity burdening our system.”

He said that despite the passage of many months no action had been initiated on the complaint. Similarly, he had also written to the Malir Development Authority (MDA) regarding the new development taking place around the basti, and had asked of the MDA to ensure that it was being carried out after following all the legal formalities.

Responding to his letter, the MDA’s deputy director, town planning had said: “As per the records, no MDA land had been disposed off /given to anyone adjacent to Khuda Ki Basti for development purposes. If anyone is developing the site adjacent to the basti, the same is coming under encroachment.” For its removal the MDA’s official concerned may be approached, the MDA high-up advised him.

It had been decided in a meeting held in September 2005 with the then chief secretary in the chair, Mr Siddiqui added, that the Board of Revenue would ensure that the demarcation of the old village was done within 15 days and action for the removal of encroachments was initiated by the relevant department. However, he said, again no action was taken in this regard.

Mr Siddiqui said that later, he approached the then Sindh revenue minister in May 2007 and informed him that despite a lapse of around 20 months no action had been taken and urged him to carry out a survey for the demarcation of Khair Mohammad Goth (Mehrab Bikak), Mohammad Hussain Brohi and Rozi Goths. But to no avail, he deplored.

A recent visit to the area revealed that numerous illegal connections had been taken from Khuda Ki Basti’s power supply line. Some of these kundas, however, have reportedly been provided by the KESC itself for which the consumers regularly pay bills.

The people selling land / plots opposite the Lyari Expressway Resettlement Project said that along with the land they were providing the buyers with letters from the Goth Abad Project. They said that their site plan had been duly passed by the Board of Revenue and they had received a no-objection certificate from the MDA and were also providing Form-2 of the BoR. The price of a 120-square-yard plot, depending on its location, ranged between Rs250,000 and Rs800,000, they added.

They told Dawn that they only accepted full-payment upon which the possession of the land was immediately handed over to the buyer. Development charges, yet to be calculated, were to be paid later.

Some of the real estate dealers operating in the area claimed that most of the projects had been approved under the government’s Goth Abad Project and the sellers, along with the land, gave documents of the BoR, which, according to them, were authentic enough to establish the ownership. They, however, agreed that the land sale / purchase activity had increased manifold during the last one year or so.