KARACHI: The Sindh government`s ambitious schemes named after slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto aimed to providing cheap houses to the poor across the province has already hit snags as ofhcials say most plots in Karachi have already been encroached upon while the scheme in Larkana the ancestral home of the former PM has been jeopardised by the local police, it emerged on Monday.

The ofHcials in the provincial government referred to a meeting held recently at the headquarters of the Sindh Katchi Abadis Authority (SKAA) in which the regional director of the Karachi field office informed senior authorities that the project officially called Benazir Bhutto Sasti Basti Scheme was initially successfully launched on Mauripur-Hawkesbay Road.

But, he added that most of the plots were occupied by land grabbers.

The ofhcials said that since the landgrab mafia was hugely influential and potentially dangerous for unarmed SKAA officials, the scheme had been jeopardised for all practicalpurposes.

Similarly, officials in Larkana said a Sasti Basti Scheme was launched in the notified katchi abadi called Allahabad on the fringes of the Bhutto`s stronghold after completion of joint demarcation of land with the Board of Revenue (BOR), Sindh.

They, however, said the scheme could not get under way as the land of the Sasti Basti scheme was in the Old Golimar Police firing range and its officials were creating hindrances and pressurising the SKAA officials to vacate the land.

Such instances were also being reported from various districts of Sindh, where the Sasti Basti scheme was in danger of becoming a failure.

SKAA authorities, however, said they were taking measures to ensure removal of encroachment from the Sasti Basti land in Mauripur in Karachi, for which they said instructions had been issued to the Held ofHce to launch the drive against the encroachers with the assistance of Rangers, the police and municipal authorities.

However, regarding the hindrances created by the police in Larkana, the authorities are still waiting for guidelines from high-ups.

The officials said the main reason for launching the recent low-cost housing scheme was to confront the increasing urbanisation of the province.They said urban centres in Sindh were growing at the rate of 4.9 per cent annually compared to the national growth rate of 3.1pc.

They said urbanisation process continued unabated due to factors, including forced human migration, fewer job opportunities, inadequate conditions, desertification, famine or drought, political fear or persecution and slavery orforced labour, etc.

The factors that encourage people to relocate include remedies for difficulties them face in their home neighbourhoods.

The officials said the incoming population was faced with housing problem due to weak housing delivery system in the public sector warranting several low-cost housing schemes to accommodate new arrivals.

Since, they added, the housing in private sector was unaffordable for the low-income groups it resultantly proliferated katchi abadis.

`To curb the emergence of illegal clusters and meet the requirement of housing needs of low-income families, the launching of low-cost housing schemes is highly essential,` said a senior official.

The officials had devised a procedure for allocation of a plot in such schemes, according to which families without shelter had been registered and an entry fee ranging from Rs8,000 to Rs10,000 was fixed, which covered a part of price of the plot. After assessment, possession of 80 square yards plot was handed over for immediate construction.

The officials said 60 monthly instalments ranging from Rs300 to Rs500 had been devised to recover total price of a plot ranging from Rs32,000 to Rs35,000, while ownership documents would be issued after five years from the date of possession subject to clearance of the total price.

The scheme has been launched in districts of Jamshoro, Thatta, Sukkur, Larkana (two locations), Jacobabad, Karachi, Thatta and Khairpur with most area (75 acres) in Karachi`s Baldia town, thus most plots (2,250) while 1,701 plots will be carved out in the schemes in the rest of Sindh.

The SKAA has the ambitious plan to launch low-cost housing schemes in all district headquarters of Sindh.

Of ficials estimate about 500,000 dwelling units across Sindh for 1985 katchi abadis that needed to be resettled in such schemes.

They said it would be a gigantic task to find land for 500,000 plots of 80 square yards and the authorities were already in consultation with the board of revenue to allocate the land.