islamabad - The Capital Development Authority has decided to revamp its Building Control Section and Enforcement Directorate ahead of a major crackdown against encroachments in the city, according to the officials.

The officials told The Nation that the decision has been taken in the wake of ever-increasing encroachments and illegal possession of the state land in the city.

They said that illegalities on part of the housing societies and the individuals owning them have led the CDA high ups to take action against them despite insufficient workforce to act on ground.

According to the details, the city would be divided into 8 zones and the officials of BCS and Enforcement directorate would be made available at the zone level 24/7 to keep an eye on the illegal activities. Currently, the officials have to report back to the main office in sector G-7. The deployment of the officials at the zone level would help the Authority take prompt action against the violators, the officials believe.

The BCS and Enforcement directorates had been facing shortage of field staff.

The BCS had 10 inspectors while the Enforcement directorate had only 25 inspectors to monitor illegal activities on part of the land mafia and individuals. However, the administration has recently posted senior level staff from other departments to the enforcement directorate besides dividing the directorate into two categories; Rural and Urban. On May 18, the administration posted 4 officials including Sohail Ahmed Chohan, Manzoor Hussain, Zulfiqar Ali Junejo and Ashfaq Ahmed as assistant directors Enforcement directorate from other directorates to overcome shortage of staff at the directorate. Junior level staff has also been posted at the directorate recently. From now onwards, there would be two separate directors for the Rural and Urban Islamabad when it comes to enforcement of the laws particularly in case of encroachments. The officials believe that the step of bifurcating the enforcement directorates would help share the workload.

 Due to lack of a system of vigilance at grass root level, the mafia did not even spare the state institutions including Quaid-i-Azam University and illegally occupied a total of 202 acres of the university’s land out of the total 1709 acres allocated by the Capital Development Authority (CDA). Same is the case at the commercial markets and localities where traders and residents have encroached upon the state land meant for other purposes.

 The officials at the CDA believe that revamping the two departments is a sincere effort on part of the present CDA administration towards ensuring rule of law in the city.