MANSEHRA: The district administration has banned all sorts of construction activities on the New Balakot City housing project’s land in Bakrial area issuance of no objection certificate by the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority.

The government had acquired around 15,600 kanals of the land for the project in 2007.

According to an order issued by deputy commissioner Dr Qasim Ali Khan, land has been acquired, mutated and transferred in Mongan, Dodial Malkal, Dodial Argoshal and Bakrial areas along with a piece of forest land in the name of the provincial government for the housing project meant to settle the survivors of the 2005 earthquake from Balakot.

“We [administration] had handed over this demarcated land twice first in 2007 and then in 2018 to the acquiring authority but the Erra reports that illegal constructions and encroachment are there,” the order read.

It added that violators of the ban would be punished under Section 188 of PPC.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2021