MULTAN, March 12: The government has yet to release a grant of Rs500 million, which President Gen Pervez Musharraf had announced during his referendum campaign for the district’s development.

Addressing a large public gathering at the Multan cricket stadium last year, the president had announced this grant for the Multan’s uplift projects, especially sewer system.

City tehsil administration Nazim Mian Faisal Mukhtar told Dawn on Wednesday that he had knocked every door to get the grant, but to no avail.

To a question whether the grant was a referendum gimmick, he said, “Indeed, this is the case so far.”

A local stalwart of the ruling PML-Q, the Nazim has, meanwhile, urged the government to give a clear message to the people that the local bodies system introduced under the devolution plan was to be stayed. He said the system might need some improvement, but it had delivered in a way none of the previous local bodies systems could do.

He said when the CTA took over the affairs of the Multan municipal corporation 18 months ago, nearly 87 per cent of the budget was being spent under the head of non-development expenditure while only 13 per cent was used for welfare. But now the ratio was 60:40, he said, pledging to bring down the non-development expenditure to 50 per cent.

To the administration’s credit, he said it had introduced commercialization policy after a gap of almost eight years in order to regularize expansion of the city. He said the corporation had to recover Rs100 million commercialization fee from the people since 1993. Of the amount, the CTA could manage to recover only Rs4 million, as 200 to 250 files from the corporation’s records were missing. However, no map had gone out of sight since the CTA took charge, he said.

Highlighting the CTA’s some other contributions to the district’s development, the Nazim said five parks of the city had been renovated so far while three more parks namely, Mumtazabad, Kirri Jiminda and Zakariya, would be improved in the current fiscal.

A traffic signal system was being introduced in the district, which had so far been without the facility despite being one of the largest cities in the country.

He said the second phase of the general bus stand, requiring Rs75 million, would soon be started. It would provide facilities of the international standards to the commuters, he added. Keeping in view the cultural and historical importance of the city, he said the CTA had planned to start restoring the monumental sites to their original state. Initially, the Qasim Bagh Fort, gates of the walled city and Alang would be restored, he said.

According to the Nazim, a craft bazaar would start working in June this year.

He added that the idea of the bazaar was to assemble artisans of various indigenous artforms at one place to attract tourists.

He said a proper sewerage system for the city was a major issue, which required Rs1.2 billion to be completed. The grant announced by the president had kindled hopes that this long-standing problem would be resolved, he said.

Mr Mukhtar said the district produced 750 tonnes of solid waste daily, but there was no facility for it’s proper disposal. However, he said, the United Nations development programme was to launch a project of recycling some 150 tonnes of solid waste daily in the city to produce fertilizers.

On the legislators’ role in the local development, the Nazim said it should not be more than of advisory nature because the representatives of local bodies could better realize the micro issues at the grass-root level.