Lahore now the cleanest big city in Pakistan, and greener too. New imagery here!!

[Kabira]

Can government change laws in Lahore to encourage high rise apartments? Waste of great agricultural land.

Lahore deprived of its agricultural land

SAMIULLAH RANDHAWA

LAHORE: Lack of concern at authority’s end has deprived the provincial capital of thousands of acres of agricultural land during the last two decades, posing a serious threat to the food security in the city.

At a time when the need for more food is growing because of an uncontrolled increase in population every year, more and more land is being taken over for housing schemes and other projects. As a result, land for agricultural purposes is shrinking with the passage of time, raising concerns for food shortage in the future.

At the time of partition of the subcontinent, Lahore possessed a total area of 177,204 hectares (437,880 acres). Due to unavailability of resources and absence of a land census, the total cultivated area could not be defined. However, according to a land census, the total cultivated area of Lahore was 166,862 hectares in 1972, which reduced to 81,040 by the year 2000.

With the increasing population in Pakistan, Lahore also witnessed a rapid growth in its population during the last two decades. According to the 1998 census, Lahore had a population of around 6.3 million which has now mounted up to 11 million.

Following the rapid growth in city’s population, authorities remained reluctant to make efforts to save the agricultural land of the city.

Lahore Development Authority (LDA), which is to be considered the sole authority regarding the city’s plan, also failed to cope with the issue as conversion of agricultural land into residential, commercial and other projects continued under its nose. An official in LDA, seeking anonymity, revealed that in 2004, during the Nazimship of Mian Amir Mahmood, LDA’s Metropolitan Department notified a master plan for Lahore (2004-2021) in which residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural areas of the cities were defined clearly. According to this plan, the agricultural land comprising BRB Canal, Hadyara Drain, Khaira Distributory, Bedian Road, Shalimar Link Road, GT Road and Burki Road were proposed for conversion into residential areas.

Besides LDA’s approved societies, many illegal residential societies and other localities have been developed on agricultural lands across the city.

Agricultural expert Dr Ibrahim Mughal said that the agriculture land of Lahore was capable of producing enough vegetables for the entire population of the city. “Due to a decrease in agricultural land, the local production of vegetable and fruits has been decreased up to 70 per cent in the district,” he said, adding that this scenario also poses a serious threat to food security as the production of edible crops like rice, wheat and sugar has also been reduced by 50 per cent during last two decades.

According to Mughal, around one lac acres of agricultural land have been converted to residential and other projects. He said that the rapid decrease in agricultural land is the major cause of Lahore’s underground water. He said, “If we talk about the situation of Lahore two decades ago, around 50 per cent of the area comprised of agricultural land. This land not just helped in producing vegetation but was also a major source of ground water recharging.”

He alleged that land mafia had been converting agricultural land to a residential area as approved by the authorities themselves. Beside this, Mughal also blamed the agricultural department which remained reluctant to save the agricultural land. “I have never seen or heard any official from agricultural department made a draft for the conservation of agricultural land or asked the parliamentarians to bring any legislation,” he added.

A senior member of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, while expressing his view, said that along with other provinces of Pakistan, Punjab has no land rule act, which is helping bureaucracy convert the agricultural land into residential and industrial zones. Seeking anonymity, he said that LDA remained reluctant regarding the agricultural land while preparing its master plans.

There was a time when the total vegetable production from Lahore was 15 to 20 tonnes per acre but, with the reduction in this land, Lahore’s market now receives around 1,500 tonnes of vegetable from other districts of the Punjab. The official commented and said that during Pervaiz Elahi’s tenure, Punjab government initiated a program for the farmers of Lahore, encouraging them to cultivate more and more vegetable so that price hikes could be avoided. “The programme was rolled back soon after his tenure ended. Instead of growing vegetables, people preferred to convert their lands into residential zones,” he said, adding that the officials of revenue department are also responsible for this because they permitted land owners for conversion.

According to senior lawyer Rafay Alam, lack of land management has also resulted in leap-frog or piecemeal development and undesirably low densities at the cost of prime agricultural land. Talking to Pakistan Today, he said that the conversion of precious agricultural land into residential societies has shifted the production of vegetable, milk and related products to other cities, which has caused a significant increase in prices. However, he does not believe that the reduction in agricultural land has posed a food security threat so far.

On the other hand, LDA recently started a new housing scheme on a vast area of 7,500 acres. Interestingly a major area of this scheme comprised of agricultural land.

 

[F86 Saber]

Sure... But:

Metro doesn't provide jobs... It provides transportation? Which could be handled by running more inter city buses alone.

Govt hospitals provide free healthcare.. Or at least that's the idea.

Actually, it does... from the Mechanical, Electrical, Civil Engineers,Masons, electricians, and labor who built it to the drivers, the ticketing staff, security staff, maintenance staff, management and other support staff who are running it, they all did or are still earning from it.

There is this famous Chinese saying that "You give bread to a hungry person and he will be hungry again tomorrow, you give him a finishing net and you have fed him for life"

There are hospitals which provide free basic and intermediate health care facilities to the poor, i can name at least 8 in Lahore. Yes they are inadequate, why, because simply there are too many people in need and they are increasing by the day. It is because of this burden of population, and that too in the lower class, that is causing inadequacy of free healthcare facilities. I am sorry but it is not the Govt's responsibility to raise your Children, it is yours.

My mother (May her soul rest in peace), who was a college Profession used to tell this incident. Once when the driver was not able to pick her up from the college, she asked her staff to bring a riskshaw for her (she was the Principle at that time). The Riskshaw driver, upon seeing the protocol given to my mother by the staff, and realizing she was someone important, started telling his life story to her on the way which included telling her about his 8 daughters and how he could not afford to send them all to college and telling my mother that she needed to do something about it. My mother used to say that on hearing this, she didn't say anything but thought to herself why on earth would he have 8 daughters if he knew he couldn't afford them and why was it her responsibility to take care of them?

The dilemma of our nation is the belief that every newborn will bring his own "Rizk", now i don't want to be deemed a Kafir but Allah has also given us a brain. Govt. needs to implement a one child policy in Pakistan as well otherwise there is no solution.

 

[BATMAN]

Still can't decipher when Lahore has elitist hospitals, why Sharif's head to London...??


According to Dr. Shahida A Khawaja, Chief Executive at National Hospital, the newly designed floor is a great prospect to promote luxurious healthcare, attracting medical tourism in the country where global standard treatment can be given to the patients.

All thanks to overseas Pakistanis. They invest in Pakistan, and take it forward.
Whereas local Pakistanis only spend on imported scrap cars from Japan, Indian movies, paying to Indian advertisement companies, or they pay generously to ship Indian goods all over Pakistan and central Asia.

Spending on health an education alone without providing sourcing of employment is not development.

To create employment, we need to stop smuggling of goods from India and Iran.
We need to boycott Indian movies, we need to boycott all TV channels which play Indian made advertisements. We need to stop littering our streets, this makes environment dirty, which creates sickness, Pakistan's under ground water and unhealthy meat and vegetables are major cause of cancer. Hence state need to invest in hospitals and auxiliaries, which is basically waste of resources, which could have been well spent on infrastructure development, defense and security.

It should not be an either-or proposition. How can you choose to make that distinction? If you think Infrastructural development is less important, then go see Karachi.

Problem of Pakistan is that its development and national security is in hands of politicians.

Only private housing societies clean on their own, rest of old Lahore is cleaned by Lahore waste management company.

My dear friend, if you exclude private developed and maintained satellite housings, you are left with 25% of Lahore. i.e. androon Lahore.
And no authority can manage waste, if people don't participate. Lahories should come forward and take ownership of Lahore.
Make Lahore an example to follow for the rest of big cities.

 

[Kabira]

My dear friend, if you exclude private developed and maintained satellite housings, you are left with 25% of Lahore. i.e. androon Lahore.
And no authority can manage waste, if people don't participate. Lahories should come forward and take ownership of Lahore.
Make Lahore an example to follow for the rest of big cities

"The budget allocations are Rs1 billion more than last year’s budget due to the expansion of LWMC’s services to the whole city, particularly to cooperative housing societies. The areas of Cantonment and railways do not still come under the jurisdiction of the LWMC."
https://www.dawn.com/news/1261154

 

[WhyCry]

karachi walo ki kyu jala rahe ho?

 

[BATMAN]

"The budget allocations are Rs1 billion more than last year’s budget due to the expansion of LWMC’s services to the whole city, particularly to cooperative housing societies. The areas of Cantonment and railways do not still come under the jurisdiction of the LWMC."
https://www.dawn.com/news/1261154

Let's see how it turns up. Its been more than a year, I last visited Pakistan.

karachi walo ki kyu jala rahe ho?

Karachi has all the potential to out smart Lahore, once they start investing on them selves instead of London.

 

[WhyCry]

Karachi has all the potential to out smart Lahore, once they start investing on them selves instead of London.

I think they will differ with you being the economic capital of pakistan.

 

[BATMAN]

I think they will differ with you being the economic capital of pakistan.

While economic back bone of India is Kabul and capitol hill.

 

[Sheikh Rauf]

These are just areas where upper middle class lives why can't someone post pics of behind "do Moria pull" north side of lahore needs to be clean aswell the amount of pollution they have is unlivable it's sad people only talk about bahria DHA model town town ship and surroundings.

 

[WhyCry]

While economic back bone of India is Kabul and capitol hill.

Very long backbone.

Its sad to see that your delusion has only intensified over so many years on this site.

 

[BATMAN]

Very long backbone.

Its sad to see that your delusion has only intensified over so many years on this site.

Where's the drug money which RAW and CIA earned in addition to the contract fees of private security and supplies?
Don't tell me its invested back in Afghanistan.

 

[WhyCry]

Where's the drug money which RAW and CIA earned in addition to the contract fees of private security and supplies?
Don't tell me its invested back in Afghanistan.

I thought ISI has full control of afghanistan with baradar 'taliban' since 1980's and the amdekan left you high and dry in afghanistan. Well I should be the one asking you that question.

 

[Mr.Nair]

I can vouch for his observation as iam a Punjabi and non Lahori .



d.c.o's across the Punjab have been given directions to divert a hefty amount of the development budget of those districts to Lahore


@RealNapster @Hell hound Kochi is a city in India

Look at the number of passengers in even Tier2 cities in India which many very less population vs karachi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinnah_International_Airport

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_India

There are 10 cities is India, which carries more passengers than biggest city of pakistan.Neither can't compare the terminal facilities.

So now you want to name karachi city as a town or Indian towns(according to you) as city ?

@Mentee @RealNapster @maximuswarrior @ZeEa5KPul @Areesh

Look at the growth and many will double the passenger volume in 4 years.....

There will be another 4 cities other than 10 cities, will overtake lahore airport passenger volume, by few years from now, since the lahore airport takes almost 15-20 years to double the passenger volume-2.6 million in 2001
to 4.7 million in 2016.The lahore population is even though much much higher than those 4 indian cities.

Still don't know why big cities in pakistan does not have big passenger volume or growth in airports, even though lot of pakistani's are living outside country !
@KN-1 @Zibago @pakistanipower

Every year Delhi airport passenger growth is much more than that of total passenger volume of karachi airport.

The total passengers handling by Karachi+Lahore+Islamabad international airport is around 16 million, when Delhi international airport alone carrying 57 million !

 

[N.Siddiqui]

Still don't know why big cities in pakistan does not have big passenger volume or growth in airports, even though lot of pakistani's are living outside country !

IATA Says Pakistan Among Fastest Growing Domestic Air Travel Markets

IATA (International Air Transport Association) forecasts Pakistan domestic air travel will grow at least 9.5% per year, more than 2X faster than the world average annual growth rate of 4.1% over the next 20 years. The Indian and Brazilian domestic markets will grow at 6.9% and 5.4% respectively.

The other reason is for relatively shorter distances like around 350-400 kms, or shorter people tend to use Motorways and Expressways which Pakistan has a good network compared to India.

Daewoo(into intercity bus transport) alone owns a fleet of 380 buses that serves over 50 cities and 6 million passengers every year. It also employs over 4,000 workers, 12 percent of whom are women, and IFC’s investment will help Daewoo Express create more jobs as it expands its operations.

Niazi Express is another bus service that has a fleet of over 200 buses serving 20+ destinations.

 

[N.Siddiqui]

If you can take the average of Indian airport passenger volume growth itself prove that the report is wrong as most of indian growth is double digit figure and airport like Surat growth is even 105%.

Any city airport passengers traffic, air traffic growth doesn't happens in Isolation. Like say Mumbai airport handled 45 million passengers compared to 6.5 million for Karachi Jinnah terminal should be looked into the context of the size of the country, population size and landmass as well.

Chances of passengers from Delhi and from all over India traveling to Mumbai(1.35 billion of them) makes the passengers traffic 7 times more than Karachi airport(200 million population of Pakistan).

Also giving here example of Dubai as small city with huge air traffic is not right 'cause Dubai has huge transit traffic, serves as a transit air traffic route, hence high air traffic there. Karachi has lost a large transit traffic to Dubai. And the fact that Emirates was helped by PIA is its initial years of business.

Road transport is more in Pakistan between cities....