Residents and rescue workers go through the rubble of a three-story factory building, which collapsed in Lahore February 6, 2012.—Reuters

LAHORE: Neither the City District Government of Lahore (CDGL) nor the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) owns New Town, Multan Road, where a boiler blast in a medicine factory claimed 19 lives on Monday.

“New Town falls under the territorial and commercial jurisdiction of the LDA and not the Allama Iqbal Town Municipal Administration or the CDGL,” District Coordination Officer Ahad Cheema, who also holds the offices of the CDGL and the LDA administrator and chairman, told Dawn on Tuesday.

To reinforce his point, he said matters related to commercialisation and building control of the area were being dealt by the LDA, adding he would take action against the departmental heads for allowing the factory in a residential locality and ignoring allied issues such as environmental impacts and labour rules violations.

The LDA management though rejects DCO’s claims but no official is ready to speak on the issue on the record.

“The town does not belong to the LDA,” said a senior LDA official, seeking anonymity as he was not authorised to speak on the issue.

He said the LDA received neither commercialisation nor property transfer fees from the residents of the locality.

He said had the area fallen in LDA’s precincts, the authority would have launched a rescue operation in the town after the blast. He said when few people were trapped in a plaza in BoR Society (Johar Town) last year, LDA officials had launched a rescue operation there in no time.

Interestingly, the LDA mentioned the area its controlled territory in an advertisement in 2008. The official said the ad was regarding commercialisation fee collection and that the LDA never collected such fee in the area.

Another LDA official said whenever a new private scheme was developed in the city, it was mandatory under the rules for the developers to get their scheme plans approved by the LDA.

“What I know is the town was approved by the LDA. But after the approval, LDA’s role is over and then TMAs deal with commercialisation, building control and transfer matters,” he said.

He said since its inception, town residents have been approaching the TMA for building plans, drawings approval and property transfers. He said the LDA only collected such fee from those areas which it had developed.

A resident of Hasan Town (an adjacent locality to New Town) told Dawn they approached the Allama Iqbal Town management and revenue wings of the CDGL for commercialisation.

Property consultant Mian Aziz also confirmed the New Town a CDGL area.

CDGL Commercialisation Inspector Abdullah Bangash said the LDA was concealing the facts about the factory.

“The area is an LDA controlled area as mentioned in an LDA notification issued in 1973,” he said. When asked that New Town was an approved housing scheme, he said the town developed illegally. “As the area falls under the LDA jurisdiction, the authority should have supervised the construction of the factory in a residential area,” he added.

He said CDGL’s revenue wing (Mauza Kharak) dealt with plot transfers of the town while the LDA dealt with maps, drawing, commercialisation and building control issues.

Also, CDGL Deputy District Officer (environment) Muhammad Younus Zahid said his department never issued any notice to the factory owner regarding shifting of building to other place.

“We never received any complaint from any one about the factory,” he said.