Land acquired through questionable means from the government, developed into profitable residential and commercial properties, and sold off to unsuspecting civilians. This pattern is so ubiquitous that it could describe several projects at the same time. These actions were taken by private conglomerates in conjunction with a few officials, and we could pass if off as isolated cases of individual corruption.
The worry is that the aviation division’s report about government lands being turned into housing schemes, that caused a loss of Rs1.92 billion to the national exchequer. There are hugely lucrative government properties in the heart of cities which are being used for official government residences. These residences have been constructed decades ago when the cities did not have the same densities as they do today.
Today these locations seem ill fitted to official residences, and would rather benefit from immediate commercial development. Their use in its present form also presents a loss to the exchequer in the form of loss of revenue.
The government must decide and transfer residences for officials out of the heart of the city, and into the fringes, where a great deal of the population is living anyhow. Why should it be that if it is in the benefit of the government to develop this land for commercial use, or to auction it off, that it should not be done.
The right to housing is sacrosanct for government employees. Yet, it is not necessary that the location should be one that does not make sense financially. We are all to my think of the benefit of the country, and not one person, and for that it is necessary that the locations that would benefit from commercial development, are not left restricted to old constructions, which have no historic value, and in fact new development of houses would not only increase the comfort of government employees, but also free up the locations for commercial development.