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| May 22, 2002 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 8,1423 |
‘TMA not cooperating in replacing carts’
FAISALABAD, May 21: South Asian Region of Jacob and Associates Netherlands director Zulfiqar A. Malick has said the Tehsil Municipal administration was not cooperating with his firm in replacing animal driven carts with auto-loaders due to reasons best known to municipality high-ups.
Talking to newsmen here on Monday, he said the Jacob and Associates would not deliver any of the vehicles without clear-cut assurance by the municipality about deadline of ban on animal driven carts.
He said approved applications were still open and his firm had so far received 32 demand drafts for new vehicles.
Giving details about the working and projects launched by the Jacob and Associates, Mr Malick said his firm launched a plan to replace animal driven carts with auto-loaders. Under the project, the Dutch firm announced the provision of 1,150 wagons to the owners of animal driven carts without any mark-up. The municipality assured its full cooperation during preliminary stage of the project. But, now they seemed reluctant in announcing a date to ban the carts which resulted in delay in implementation of the plan.
He said the Dutch firm was working for poverty alleviation under international laws. It was a corporate body registered in the Netherlands with its regional office for South Asian region in Faisalabad.
He said the firm preferred to launch projects like replacement of animal driven carts and urban transport bus service to improve the socio-economic condition of the poor people and reduce environment pollution. Surveys were conducted and a project to start airconditioned bus service was finalized. However, in the meantime, the Punjab government inked an agreement with a local transport company to start bus service. The local administration also handed over old GTS stand of Ghulam Muhammadabad to that firm, which could not start the bus service to-date.
The Punjab government has now sought fresh applications with June 30 deadline to start the bus service, Mr Malick concluded.
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