Karachi: The Sindh government on Monday informed the provincial legislature regarding the provision of ownership rights to the dwellers of 1,006 katchi abadis (slums) in the province, a news source reported. As per officials, the provincial executive recently notified these settlements in its bid to regularise some 1,414 shanty towns.
Minister for Human Settlement Ghulam Murtaza Baloch stated that the government had already commenced with the process of granting ownership rights to the slum dwellers; adding that the Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority (SKAA) had regularised 350 of these settlements and granted lease to the owners of 43,991 units.
He said that all katchi abadis established till 1997 were recognised under the law. A new bill – similar to the legislation adopted by the Punjab Assembly – is expected to be tabled in the Sindh Assembly to recognise those slums which were established up until 2012, he added.
As per reports, the current criteria for these settlements to be recognised is that they must have been in existence since June 1997 and include at least 40 dwelling units. These efforts arebeing made in an attempt of the Sindh government to help the federal government regularisekatchi abadis.
