KARACHI, Dec 31: The Sindh housing and town-planning department has notified that at the city district government level the master planning group of offices responsible for master planning for the entire Karachi city district shall be established.

This has been done in pursuance of decisions taken in a meeting held on Oct 9 presided over by chairman, National Reconstruction Bureau.

The office will lay down the parameters for master planning. The relevant KDA staff may be transferred to this group of offices. A city agency for master planning (CAMP) may be constituted by the city district government to allow representation to all stake-holders concerned in the preparation of master plan. This agency may have the following members:

Zila Nazim (chairperson), provincial government representative at the level of a provincial secretary/equivalent, all town Nazims of Karachi city district, a representative each of the offices dealing with land-holding/land-use in Karachi city district like PQA, KPT, Pakistan Steel, cantonment boards etc and executive district officers (master planning) as member / secretary of the agency.

The agency will function as an umbrella set up to ensure that no violation in the city master plan takes place.

At the town level, the office of the town officer (planning) will be responsible for spatial plan of the town. On the pattern of the city agency for master planning (CAMP), a town agency for spatial planning (TASP) may be constituted with the following membership:

Town Nazim (chairperson), all union Nazims in the town, executive district officer, master planning and town officer (planning) as member/secretary.

The district government will allocate relevant staff to the town office (planning) to handle the work relating to the town master planning.

The staff of the KDA other than the staff for master planning and related functions will be transferred to the other relevant offices of the city district government.

The provincial government may take necessary steps to repeal the ordinances of the KDA and other similar agencies functioning in the city district of Karachi to ensure smooth implementation of the local government ordinance.

The provincial government and the city district government may explicitly assign the roads to the town-municipal administration for maintenance and for providing other municipal facilities on the roads/road-sides.

The transfer of staff from development authorities and specialised agencies will be undertaken in a phased manner.

A mechanism may be evolved to allocate financial resources for development activities in the Karachi city district and towns.

The future role of the other agencies, like KESB, SITE, Katchi abadis authority and regional development authorities, like SAZDA vis-a-vis the district government may be finalised at an early date. The provincial government may arrange meetings to discuss the issues of these agencies/ development authorities.

The issues relating to building control mechanism at the city district levels well as town administration level may be examined by the NRB.

Centralisation of macro-municipal functions the city district level to cater for economics of scale may be kept to the barest minimum. Town municipal administrations may be given all municipal authority except a few macro municipal functions.—PPI