Pakistani journalist community has come forward to reject the Punjab government’s offer of a journalists’ housing society to be built in the Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA).
On Wednesday, Pervaiz Elahi, the Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab, allocated 700 kanals of land for the construction of a journalists’ housing society in RUDA.
Taking to Twitter, Elahi said, “Another promise to the journalist community has been fulfilled. Ravi Urban Development Authority has allotted 700 kanals of land for Journalist Colony Phase 2 in its first phase.”
He, further said that providing a roof for journalists is his top priority. “Plots were given to journalists in the previous period and still the promise of giving plots has been fulfilled,” he added.
Right after the decision, Twitter was filled with tweets by journalists and human rights activists, jointly rejecting the scheme. They accused the government of bribing them with public money.
Why are people against the allocation?
The Ravi Urban Development Authority allegedly forcibly acquired farmland from farmers, destroying crops on hundreds of acres in the Ferozewala area.
The farmers and landowners who have been victims of the project, accused the former premier Imran Khan of pushing the Pervaiz Elahi-led Punjab government to use force and arms for taking illegal possession of their land.
In August 2020, the then prime minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the controversial real estate project.