HYDERABAD, Sept 29: A detailed report on two years of the Hyderabad District Council has expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the district government and demanded that financial/administrative powers be delegated to union councils.
The report, prepared by labour councillor Rana Mehmood Ali Khan, accused the officials of hampering the working of the district government, adding that had the local government system been working according to its essence, it would have played a dominant role in solving the people’s problems.
It maintained that the district council met regularly and adopted various resolutions but the resolutions were never implemented leading to disappointment among the members.
According to the report, union councils were not delegated administrative and financial powers which badly affected their performance whereas the district council’s budget 2003-4 was yet to be passed by the Sindh government.
Development works remained suspended in year 2001-2002 despite allocations of Rs3.7 million, it said.
Referring to police department, it said that the police were enjoying unbridled powers though they were supposed to work under the subordination of the district government.
The report deplored that the District Public Safety Commission, the watchdog body over police in the system, failed to make its presence felt.
It added that police excesses had increased ever since introduction of the power devolution plan and the DPSC had failed to take any action against police on public complaints.
According to it, the district council members were not paid honorarium, promise of delivering expeditious and inexpensive justice at the door steps of people could not be fulfilled, arbitrary courts could not be set up, some monitoring committees performed well yet majority of them could not do anything significant due to non-cooperation of officials and basic infrastructure to deliver the goods to people could not be created as the UCs lacked financial powers.
Presenting recommendations, it called for measures to transfer financial and administrative powers to the UCs, removal of hurdles in different departments, handing over of some departments to the district government including Hyderabad Development Authority.
Initiating a debate on the report on Saturday, Dr Ayaz Arain described the district council’s performance as dismal, saying that it was being deliberately neglected.
“We have fallen prey to expediencies and need unity in our ranks. Officials get different works passed by the council which are in their own interest,” he lamented.
Taking part in the debate, Yousuf Qureshi said that the district Nazim should have submitted such a report in the house which was so far disposing of private business.
He said that two years’ audit report about expenditures and income of the district government should also have been submitted in the council according to the requirement of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance.
Rauf Jafri argued that monitoring committees were paralysed whereas doors of bureaucrats were closed for the people.
