FAISALABAD: The Faisalabad Development Authority (FDA) administration has sold a portion of the irrigation department’s drain by converting it into residential plots in the FDA City Housing Scheme.

The chief engineer of the Irrigation Department through a letter, titled ‘Request for restoration of banks of Sarangwala branch drain from RD.11+000-27+000 in FDA City Housing Scheme, Faisalabad, has asked the FDA administration to immediately cancel the plots allotted to anyone within the drain and restore its original banks.

The department has initiated a probe into the issue in response to an application submitted by Yasir Chaudhry, a plot holder in the FDA City.

Chaudhry alleged in his application that the housing scheme administration had converted the brinks of Sarangwala drain into plots and sold to people.

He said poisonous effluent from factories nearby and polluted water of the city was being discharged into the drain. People were facing problems in disposing of the effluent, he added.

In his letter, the chief engineer said the issue was investigated through the drainage circle superintending engineer, who reported that when the housing scheme was being launched, its administration requested the chief engineer of the irrigation department, Faisalabad Zone, for issuance of a no-objection certificate for construction of a road along both sides of the drain and 13 culverts/bridges from RD 8+820 -27+000.

The FDA chief engineer also gave an undertaking that the right of way (ROW) would only be used for improvement of the drain. It was further assured that the FDA would abide by the instructions, terms and conditions as advised by the department. The request of the FDA administration was sent to the Punjab government but it executed the work even before an approval, the letter reads.

The irrigation department officials met Shahid Gill, project director (PD) of the FDA City, to discuss the issue following which the executive engineer of Samundri Drainage Division, Faisalabad, along with some field staff as well as the FDA project director and engineers from the National Engineering Services Pakistan visited the site. They all noted that banks of the drain had been badly damaged by the FDA during construction of roads at different sites. The drain had been closed due to road construction. Neither the culverts were made under the metalled road by the FDA nor a pipe laid for smooth supply.

The chief engineer, in his letter, stated that this was brought to the notice of the FDA director general (DG) and the PD for immediate restoration of the banks of the drain. The Samundri Drainage Division executive engineer along with field staff continually visited the PD’s office reiterating their request to restore the banks and clear the prism of the drain. But so far they had not received any response. The FDA DG and PD had been asked on Dec 16 to provide an approved map of the FDA City housing scheme.

On Jan 7, the FDA provided a map to the irrigation department. During its complete examination, it was observed that the route of Sarangwala branch drain had been changed and showed residential plots with some area proposed for a cricket stadium by the FDA without permission from the authority.

However, the drain existed at its original place and no construction was seen in FDA City yet. A 20-foot portion of the drain had been included in the approved map, the letter mentioned.

“It is, therefore, requested that the original route of the Sarangwala branch drain not be disturbed as flow of drain will be affected badly and plots allotted to any person within the ROW of the drain be cancelled immediately along with restoration of prism/banks of drain as per undertaking given by the FDA so that its maintenance/restoration may be carried out accordingly to redress the grievances of the petitioners,” the letter read.

FDA City Project Director Shahid Gill said they had not sold the land of irrigation department.

“We constructed some toilets on the irrigation land which were demolished a couple of days ago,” he added.

Published in Dawn March 2nd , 2015

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