The Sindh government has not allotted 426,000 acres of land of Gorkha Hills and attached areas to the Gorkha Hills Development Authority (GHDA) despite passage of more than three years.
Well-placed sources in the Sindh Revenue department told Business Recorder on Saturday that the Sindh government had taken the decision of allotment of 426,000 acres land of Gorkha Hills to the GHDA in February 2008 but it could not be materialised despite passage of more than three years.
The sources said that this decision had been taken during a meeting held in the chairmanship of former Chief Secretary Sindh. The officials of the Tourism Department, Board of Revenue (BoR) and others attended the meeting.
They said that this matter was raised again by the Director General of GHDA Engineer Nazir Chakrani in front of the authorities concerned and a meeting in this regard was held at Chief Secretary's office on 22nd of November 2011.
Chief Secretary Sindh Raja Mohammad Abbas had chaired the meeting while, representatives of concerned departments including Tourism, GHDA, Borad of Revenue, Deputy commissioner (DC) Dadu Niaz Hussain Abbasi and others attended the meeting, sources said.
When Chakrani raised the issue of allotment of land during the meeting, the member BoR said that DC Dadu should provide details to him in this regard then, BoR would allot the land of Gorkha Hills to GHDA, sources said. DC Dadu Niaz Hussain Abbasi said that DC office had already sent a report in this regard to BoR in 2006, so another report was not needed. On this, Chief Secretary directed the member BoR to consider the matter and allotment of land would be made to GHDA in the light of DC office Dadu's report, sources said.
The officials of BoR said during the meeting that the matter of allotment of land to GHDA would be resolved within next 15 days, adding that one more meeting would be held shortly in this regard. It is worth mentioning here that PPP leaders claimed during the general election that they would develop the Gorkha Hills if they succeeded in election. The government is going to complete its four years but unfortunately nothing has been done in this regard.