islamabad - The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has failed to recover around Rs700 million from over 50 occupancies under the head of penalties/challans the authority imposed on them for poor fire protection arrangements in the premises, it has been learnt reliably.
The Emergency and Disaster Management Directorate of the CDA has had reminded office of the Senior Special Magistrate/Additional Collector Recoveries/Services, CDA for more than five times since May, 2016 for the recovery of challan amount as the arrears of land revenue but the latter has hardly taken any concrete step for the purpose, the documents available with The Nation suggest.
The Emergency and Disaster Management Directorate, in exercise of its powers conferred vide ‘Islamabad Fire Prevention and Life Safety Regulations 2010’, has issued several challan receipts to over 50 occupancies in different sectors of Islamabad. The penalties ranged from Rs100,000 to Rs500,000 for not complying with the CDA Building Standards for the Fire Prevention and Life Safety Regulations. The administrator of the premises were issued notices, checklists, reminders and show-cause notices from time to time to rectify the loopholes but they also did not bother about the same, said the CDA officials.
On the other hand, delay in the recoveries of the arrears is leading to serious audit objections, besides delay in implementation of the Life Safety Regulations. The 50 owners/occupants were supposed to deposit around Rs 700 million in the CDA accounts at their own. It is to mention here that Rs 3000 per day from the date of challan till its recovery is also due against each occupant as fine etc. CDA has been facing acute shortage of funds and sometimes lacks funds to pay the salaries of its employees but the recovery of arrears has been an issue and going unnoticed since long.
