Owners refuse to sell land: KP industrial estates' schemes hit hurdles

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's industries department is facing difficulties in getting possession of land required for establishing small industries estates at Abbottabad, Hattar and Haripur districts.
Though the district administration Abbottabad with a view to implementing the project had imposed section 4 for acquiring 482 kanal of land near Mamda village on April 30, 2014, owners of the land, who are not interested in selling their land had requested the KP chief minister to shift the project to some other place. Later, on the directives of the CM, secretary industries, MPA Aurangzeb Nalotha and managing director of Small Industries Development Board (SIDB) visited inspected alternative site for the scheme. However, out of the 482 kanal, they decided to cut a piece of 110 kanal and 11 marla land in northern part from the scheme and announced the amended award for 372 kanal and 10 marla on April 4, 2015. They also issued a letter for transferring the land in the name of SIDB.
For giving possession of the land to SIDB, district administration fixed April 16, August 20, September 9 and November 17, 2015, while concerned officials of district administration, police force, revenue and SIDB remained present on the site on respective days, but due to the resistance of land owners, the possession of the land could not be given to provincial government and hence the issue of acquiring land for the industrial estate remained unresolved.
Similarly, work on the establishment of industrial estate at Hattar has been abandoned in the wake of resistance put up by land owners and the local MPA. The site for small industrial units of SIDB was selected at Bandi Monim and section 4 was imposed on July 27, 2013 for the acquisition of a piece of 547 kanal. However, no further progress could be made on the scheme due to the resistance put up by the land owners. Provincial government is reportedly looking for an alternative site for the scheme.