February 19, 2002	Tuesday	Zilhaj 6, 1422

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HARIPUR, Feb 18: Nazimeen, Naib Nazimeen and councillors of the urban union councils of Haripur tehsil have threatened to resign en bloc if the tehsil Nazim did not change his policies towards these union councils.

They expressed these views while speaking at a news conference here on Monday. The speakers included union council Shumali Nazim Iqbal Chohan and Naib Nazim Abdul Saboor Qureshi, councillors Saboor Yusufi, Malik Idrees, Dr Aslam and others.

Alleging that the tehsil Nazim had shown indifferent attitude towards their union councils, they said their UCs were among the highest revenue generating UCs of the entire district and the biggest contributors of the tehsil budget as the citizens of these UCs pay taxes hundred times more than other people.

But, they alleged the tehsil Nazim appeared to be more generous towards his own constituency, the Tarbela union council of Khalabat Township. They said he initiated costly streetlights and water supply schemes in his constituency from the tehsil budget, while a number of city areas were without streetlights and the councillors and Nazimeen of urban union councils were dependent on the TMA officials even for the purchase of a single bulb.

About sanitation, they pointed out that as per the Local Bodies Ordinance, 2000, the sanitation staff was supposed to be at the disposal of Nazimeen of urban UCs but the tehsil Nazim had, due to reasons best known to him, withdrawn the sanitation staff which had aggravated the sanitation problem.

“He was supplying potable water to the people of his own constituency Khalabat Township for four hours daily while the residents of urban localities of Haripur have been forced to struggle for a bucket of water,” they said, adding that those who were paying taxes were being supplied water for only 30 minutes in 24 hours.

The tehsil Nazim had reportedly cut down the duration of water supply to the urban areas owing to inflated electricity bills of water supply schemes running under the TMA.

The LBs representatives asked the tehsil Nazim to change his attitude towards the urban union councils, otherwise they would tender resignation collectively.