The first auction for land recovered by the state will start on Sunday, according to Ibrahim Mahlab, the head of the committee to recover the lands. Sunday's bidding would be the first auction to be held since an April announcement by the committee that 37,000 feddans of recoverd land would be offered at public auctions for the incorporation into the government's developmental plans. Formed by Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in February, the committee aims to recover stolen state land. MENA agency reported Mahlab as saying that Sunday's auction -- to be held at the General Authority for Reconstruction Projects and Agricultural Development -- to achieve development to the state through "legal" purchase by buyers. The auction will include lands located in Wadi Al-Natroun, Beheira, and on the Cairo-Alexandria road. Mahlab said the 37,000 feddans isn't the only land retrieved by the committee, adding that 6,000 feddans of land worth EGP 7 billion were given to the housing ministry's urban community authority. The former prime minister said that the committee would continue in its mission to retrieve "the people's rights", stressing that the auctions would be conducted within controls and regulations that ensure transparency. The committee includes the minister of local development, the president's aide for security affairs and counter-terrorism, representatives from the justice, defence and finance ministries and from Egypt's general intelligence service.
