LAHORE: “Wrong and illegal” selection of land in a populated area in Kattar Bund for the establishment of a wastewater treatment plant by the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and some other departments has left the neighbourhood panicky with no option but to stage protests and approach the court of law.

A government authority had also advised Wasa a couple of years ago to review its plan of establishing the plant. Many residents have served legal notices on Wasa under intimation to the Housing and Urban Development Department and others concerned, declaring the whole procedure for the land acquisition illegal for being in violation of the Land Acquisition Act.

Setting aside villagers’ concerns, Wasa says the project will go ahead as planned.

An official told Dawn alternate pieces of land fit for the wastewater treatment plant were available in the area but the selection of Kattar Bund land in a built-up area was very strange. The Ravi Urban Development Authority (Ruda) had also asked Wasa administration to better review the location. The Ruda reviewed the location of Kattar Bund plant and declared that the area (designated for the plant) was situated in the area where infrastructure development works had already been done.

“There are large wastewater ponds nearby, creating problems for the inhabitants. Moreover, the distance from the plant (Kattar Bund) to River Ravi is approximately 2.5 km,” reads the letter written by Ruda to Wasa on Sept 13, 2022.

Wasa rejects villagers’ concerns

“Keeping in view the aforementioned factors, Wasa is requested to review the location of the plant along with other proposed plants and provide detailed plan of all plants for integration with the Ruda’s SDP,” the letter seeks.

On the other hand, residents of villages Gopi Rai and Shahpur, through notices, have also expressed grave concern over the proposed construction of the plant and termed land acquisition unlawful.

They said the process for the land acquisition was initiated on June 17, 2019, in a very hasty manner mainly based upon faulty surveys. The collector (Lahore) without applying a judicial mind issued a notice under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. They said the whole exercise was in violation of certain provisions of concerned statues and fundamental rights guaranteed to citizens under the constitution.

They said that large pieces of land from various mauzas were picked and notified for acquisition without a proper PC-1, feasibility report and estimation of the expected cost, including payments against land acquisition.

According to them, the “notification under section 4 had lapsed. The rule 7 of the Punjab Land Acquisition Rules, 1983, prescribes a period of one year for issuance of notice under section 5 of the act of 1894 from the date of issuance of notification under section 4 of the act. They said the act did not give unfettered powers to the acquiring agency and beneficiary to sleep over the rights of citizens and do not conclude the acquisition proceedings in the given period of one year.

They said the apex court had time and again held that the acquiring agency did not have unlimited time to conclude the acquisition process rather it was required to complete the proceedings within a reasonable time (one year) so that the land owners whose lands were proposed to be acquired couldn’t be put in agony of uncertainty for such a long period. Their notice also quoted article 24 of the constitution that states that the citizens cannot be deprived of their property through a compulsory process of acquisition. It also mentioned that the in master plan of the Ruda, the area forming part of the land in discussion is earmarked for the purpose of residential and not for other purposes.

Wasa Managing Director Mr Ghufran Ahmad was not aware of Ruda letter regarding revision in the plan. “May be the letter was written before my appointment as MD. But even if Ruda asks us now to review the plan, we cannot do it,” he said.

According to him, the project would be executed in funding collaboration with a foreign donor under a soft loan of nearly Rs22 billion. He said the entire land acquisition process was in accordance with law, rules and regulations.

The MD couldn’t explain the time limit of one year for land acquisition and non-issuance of fresh notification under section 4 to revive the first notification issued in 2019.

Meanwhile, residents have decided to start staging protests in coming days beside taking the matter to the court. “The residents are really worried. I don’t know why the government wants to get the land of this built-up area despite the fact a number of pieces of land are already available near the river Ravi,” Muhammad Imran, a resident, said.

“Since we are already worried about a wastewater drain flowing in the area, the proposed land acquisition in our area has panicked everyone,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2024