HYDERABAD: Wasa blamed for water crisis: Hyderabad dist council
By Our Correspondent
HYDERABAD, June 29: The district Naib Nazim, Nawab Rashid Ali Khan, has flayed the performance of the Hyderabad Development Authority and Water and Sanitation Agency in the wake of the ongoing water crisis in the city’s three talukas.
Giving his observations while presiding over the budget session on Saturday, he said that even Rs1 billion would be insufficient to rectify the situation.
He said that while the people were taking to the streets in every nook and corner of the city and Latifabad, both the civic bodies were least bothered about their plight.
The managing director, Wasa, M. Tahir, who was present in the session, said that he had no authority. Mr Khan snubbed him saying that since he was powerless, it would be a waste of time to hear him.
Referring to the allocations of discretionary funds under different heads, he asked the district officer, Finance and Planning, Abdul Sattar Jatoo, to cite the rules under which the funds were earmarked.
He said that if there were no rules, then a proper procedure should be adopted to allocate this amount for other necessary and relevant heads of accounts. He wanted to know what “additional allowance” meant in budgetary estimates.
He said that it appeared that the district government’s Finance and Planning Department did not seek demands from the departments and had made enhancement in the budget on its own whims.
Mr Rashid said that the department did not set any parameters for showing increase in allocations of different heads.
He also criticized the department for presenting an incomplete budget saying that when the budget documents were incomplete how could it be approved by the session.
To an objection of a member about Rs2.17 billion budget for the education sector, he asked the EDO, education department, to provide him details of the demands, sent to the Finance and Planning department for allocation of the budget.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the marginal rent of the defunct district council’s properties, he said that even in these days of inflation the people were paying rent of Rs300 to Rs600.
He said the Finance and Planning department was not interested in increasing its sources of income.
