Destroying Agricultural land

[AsifIjaz]

Within the last few years i have had the opportunity to visit the so called rural areas around Lahore, Gujranwala and recently Qasoor as well... the reason was that we were searching for a good agricultural land... it is shocking to see that most of the agricultural land in lahore district has now been converted into housing schemes and/or farm houses... right from Barki road, Bedian Road, Lahore sharaqpur road, ferozepur road to even multan road all areas have been bought and are now being sold as plots... All of Baharia town, DHA phase 4, 5, 6 ,7 ,8, 9, 10, Imperail garden/Paragon city, GT farm houses, New Lahore city, Motor way city, DHA GWA, Jati umra, LDA avenue 1/2, Khayaban-e-Ameen, Colonies on Raiwand road, EME and colonies on canal were lush green and fertile land till a decade back. To add fuel to the fire the LDA is launching the Ravi river front project which will again destroy thousands to million of acres if not more. Government is also or has already allowed the setting up of power plants on fertile land (sahiwal, Nandipur, Nishat). This is the scene around Lahore only and i can give similar examples for alot other districts as well.
How and from where are we going to feed the masses... the price of basic commodities is increasing at a fast pace and this ostrich approach shows the lack of character and far sightedness on part of our leaders.. even the recently announced initiatives to spare the class A land is too little too late. there needs to be a total ban of making anything on class A and B lands be it a power plant, industry, controlled shed or even shops etc... we have so much of barren/water logged or saline land that it would and should be sufficient for such activities. I wish someone would take notice before its too late

 

[Dubious]

Within the last few years i have had the opportunity to visit the so called rural areas around Lahore, Gujranwala and recently Qasoor as well... the reason was that we were searching for a good agricultural land... it is shocking to see that most of the agricultural land in lahore district has now been converted into housing schemes and/or farm houses... right from Barki road, Bedian Road, Lahore sharaqpur road, ferozepur road to even multan road all areas have been bought and are now being sold as plots... All of Baharia town, DHA phase 4, 5, 6 ,7 ,8, 9, 10, Imperail garden/Paragon city, GT farm houses, New Lahore city, Motor way city, DHA GWA, Jati umra, LDA avenue 1/2, Khayaban-e-Ameen, Colonies on Raiwand road, EME and colonies on canal were lush green and fertile land till a decade back. To add fuel to the fire the LDA is launching the Ravi river front project which will again destroy thousands to million of acres if not more. Government is also or has already allowed the setting up of power plants on fertile land (sahiwal, Nandipur, Nishat). This is the scene around Lahore only and i can give similar examples for alot other districts as well.
How and from where are we going to feed the masses... the price of basic commodities is increasing at a fast pace and this ostrich approach shows the lack of character and far sightedness on part of our leaders.. even the recently announced initiatives to spare the class A land is too little too late. there needs to be a total ban of making anything on class A and B lands be it a power plant, industry, controlled shed or even shops etc... we have so much of barren/water logged or saline land that it would and should be sufficient for such activities. I wish someone would take notice before its too late

sadly fewer people want to do farming...more and more people want independent houses...the same people who would live in a 1 bedroom apartment in the West want many canal of zameen in Pakistan....fair enough there should be some control by introducing apartment systems and advertising it like Dubai ....so people would flood into those!

 

[Bouncer]

sadly fewer people want to do farming...more and more people want independent houses...the same people who would live in a 1 bedroom apartment in the West want many canal of zameen in Pakistan....fair enough there should be some control by introducing apartment systems and advertising it like Dubai ....so people would flood into those!

Agreed, we have this cultural thing that we want to live in big open houses. High rise apartments are generally not preferred.
But this can change with economic change. When our country will industrialize more, we'll see more and more people trying to move closer to jobs. Then we'll see this trend. I believe Karachi has been seeing this for quite some time.

 

[Dubious]

Agreed, we have this cultural thing that we want to live in big open houses. High rise apartments are generally not preferred.
But this can change with economic change. When our country will industrialize more, we'll see more and more people trying to move closer to jobs. Then we'll see this trend. I believe Karachi has been seeing this for quite some time.

yes Karachi has already seen this for a while....and I think some parts of Lahore...but it needs to be introduced on the double otherwise we wont have land left for agriculture...coz once industrialized it will take forever and not to mention the expenses to turn the soil back to farm worthy and fertile!

 

[AsifIjaz]

Agreed, we have this cultural thing that we want to live in big open houses. High rise apartments are generally not preferred.
But this can change with economic change. When our country will industrialize more, we'll see more and more people trying to move closer to jobs. Then we'll see this trend. I believe Karachi has been seeing this for quite some time.

Agree... but i wish we would do more before that time comes... government needs to put in place some rules and regulations e.g. encouraging high rises, increasing taxes on houses bigger than 1 or 2 canals substantially and last but not the least the trend to safe guard your money by buying a plot and leaving it aside for decades need to be discouraged. simple way to do is that since all transactions are done via C-NIC hence every time a family/khandan no (comprising of a person, his spouse and children before marriage... after marriage Id card no remains same but family/khandan no changes) buys a 6th or 7th plot then taxes and transfer fee should increase slightly, even more on 8th or 9th plot and double from 10th to 12th plot. This would have double pronged effect as one hand we would discourage investments in plots and other hand it would increase investment in saving schemes, stocks, bonds etc...
In short some one higher up will have to think out of the box.

 

[Sugarcane]

I have expressed same concern many time, I hope people realize it sooner and force govt. to act and secure the future before that we reach point of no return.

 

[Shabaz Sharif]

I have expressed same concern many time, I hope people realize it sooner and force govt. to act and secure the future before that we reach point of no return.

I think the reason is its very difficult to find barren land in central punjab?

 

[VCheng]

sadly fewer people want to do farming...more and more people want independent houses...the same people who would live in a 1 bedroom apartment in the West want many canal of zameen in Pakistan....fair enough there should be some control by introducing apartment systems and advertising it like Dubai ....so people would flood into those!

The basic issue is not expats wanting bigger houses in Pakistan. The basic issue is overpopulation, exacerbated by an increasing trend for the rural population to move into the urban areas.

 

[Dubious]

The basic issue is not expats wanting bigger houses in Pakistan. The basic issue is overpopulation, exacerbated by an increasing trend for the rural population to move into the urban areas.

so expats are not having 4-5 properties worth kanal or more each? That is fine? You talk about equality but suddenly get blinded every now and then?

I dont just mean expats but anyone who basically has 6-10 properties but lives outside the country ...why take up land that other people can use?

and then these people dont even pay their tax

 

[VCheng]

so expats are not having 4-5 properties worth kanal or more each? That is fine? You talk about equality but suddenly get blinded every now and then?

I dont just mean expats but anyone who basically has 6-10 properties but lives outside the country ...why take up land that other people can use?

and then these people dont even pay their tax

Let us talk numbers. A few tens of thousands expats, even with multiple properties (most of which do not remain vacant, but are rented out to locals) simply are not enough to cause the pressure that is being generated by the millions moving into cities from the countryside. The real problem is generated locally.

 

[Dubious]

Let us talk numbers. A few tens of thousands expats, even with multiple properties (most of which do not remain vacant, but are rented out to locals) simply are not enough to cause the pressure that is being generated by the millions moving into cities from the countryside. The real problem is generated locally.

Very few rent it out...

I do not deny that the moving into the cities..but the issue at hand is farming at the countryside being taken over by housing schemes...Hence locals wanting larger houses then they can afford..show shaa...and also the lack of appreciation / trend of condominiums / flats / apartments except in Karachi and some parts of Lahore...

 

[VCheng]

Very few rent it out...

I do not deny that the moving into the cities..but the issue at hand is farming at the countryside being taken over by housing schemes...Hence locals wanting larger houses then they can afford..show shaa...and also the lack of appreciation / trend of condominiums / flats / apartments except in Karachi and some parts of Lahore...

It is not just housing schemes. Vast areas of land are used for slums.

 

[Dubious]

It is not just housing schemes. Vast areas of land are used for slums.

agreed but we are talking about countryside....it is not as bad as the outskirts of the main cities...

 

[VCheng]

agreed but we are talking about countryside....it is not as bad as the outskirts of the main cities...

You are correct that the outskirts of big cities are under the greatest pressure to expand, but even the smaller towns and villages are expanding into the countryside simply to accommodate the rising number of people. What is needed is lots of housing schemes for lower income groups that increase population density rather than the area.

 

[Dubious]

You are correct that the outskirts of big cities are under the greatest pressure to expand, but even the smaller towns and villages are expanding into the countryside simply to accommodate the rising number of people. What is needed is lots of housing schemes for lower income groups that increase population density rather than the area.

what is needed are people with a plan and a vision not assholes who are so-called planning in such a way to pocket as much as possible who cares what happens or the plan fails in 2 yrs! As long as they got their fair share of the cut!

Next is the lack of education in people (esp at decision making level and also those who are sent to implement it) to understand this factor of long term planning which is kind of none existence in people residing there!

So its not just the broken system and the "blind leaders" but also the everyday man!