KARACHI: Town Nazims get orders to raze illegal constructions
KARACHI, Dec 31: Governor Muhammadmian Soomro during his meeting with Town Nazims of Karachi on Monday asked them to lay a heavy hand on illegal constructions.
The governor also allowed them to demolish such constructions without prior notice in future.
Addressing the Nazims at the Governor’s House on Monday, the governor also asked them to keep an eye on leakage of revenue and theft of water and power in their respective areas and take steps for recovery of dues.
Mr Soomro also laid stress on keeping the prices of essential commodities stable.
The governor asked the elected representatives to keep their doors open for general public and work for their welfare without any discrimination.
He also advised them to work as a team under the City Nazim and observed that coordination among them would help complete development schemes in time and without any hindrance.
The governor stressed the need for adopting a transparent procedure for inviting tenders for development schemes and for timely payment of bills. He further said that the standard of work be given priority.
Mr Soomro directed the concerned authorities to ensure that sanctioned staff is posted in each town government. However, he said that merit should be the criteria while re-deploying staff and action be taken against absent and ghost employees.
Chief Secretary Javed Ashraf Hussain informed the meeting that a committee, headed by City Nazim, has been constituted to resolve the day-to-day problems of the new vegetable market.
Education secretary Nazar Hussain Mahar told the participants that school management committees have been formed in educational institutions to improve their working and Rs2,100 million have been released to the City Government for schools. Moreover, as primary education had been made compulsory, arrangements have been made to distribute books free of cost to deserving students.
Finance secretary Fazal-ur-Rahman said all departments devolved so far were under the Nazims and District Coordination Officers and the provincial government was not interfering in their affairs.
Excise and taxation secretary Masood-ur-Rahman informed that the provincial E&T department will collect the property tax and transfer the funds to respective towns this year, but from next financial year the towns would have to collect the tax themselves.
The local government secretary Qamar Zaman apprised the Town Nazims of various laws.
City Nazim Naimatullah Khan, DCO Karachi Shafique-ur-Rahman Paracha, Additional Chief Secretary Shahzado Shaikh, DIG Police Karachi Tariq Jamil, Director-General Karachi Water & Sewerage Board Bahram Khan, Director-General KDA Zaheer Qadri and other officers attended the meeting.—PPI
