KARACHI, Jan 23: Despite payment of substantial taxes annually to the Cantonment authorities, the residents of Block-19, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, are living in miserable conditions as inaccessibility to basic facilities of life has compounded their woes.
“Block 19 lies in the jurisdiction of Cantonment Board Faisal, which has been receiving all taxes for the last ten years without paying attention to the civic problems of the area,” honorary deputy coordinator, government of Sindh, Kazi A. Saleem, told PPI on Wednesday.
According to him, the defunct KDA had laid water supply lines in the area about six years back by spending Rs6 million and then its possession was handed over to the Cantonment authorities. Since then, he said, the residents have been demanding supply of water but without success.
“On one hand, the Cantonment authorities are receiving all civic taxes while on the other they not only refuse to have physical possession of the area but also do not allow other agencies to intervene for resolving the residents’ problems,” he said, adding that all roads and lights constructed and installed in the area by the defunct KDA had been ruined because of lack of maintenance and repair works.
“Mushroom growth of encroachments have continued and builders have erected huge structures, due to which even vehicular traffic can not enter the area,” he said.
The sanitary condition in the locality has also been in a pathetic condition with garbage dumps established along both sides of the roads, which has become a major source for the spread of various diseases.
Mr Saleem demanded the Cantonment authorities to pay heed to the problems of the residents of the civil areas of the Cantonment Board Faisal.—PPI
