KARACHI, Feb 25: The local bodies representatives of Lyari Town have urged city and provincial governments to provide immediate financial assistance to the town so that it could meet its development needs.

They regretted that development activities in the town could not be resumed due to paucity of funds and the town administration had been experiencing a critical position in the very regard.

The town officials said that under the new local body plan, the division of the town was unnatural as all its commercial centres including Lea Market, Timber Market, Kharadar, Mithadar had been cut off, depriving the town from its revenue sources.

At a hurriedly called press conference, Lyari Town Nazim Abdul Khaliq Jumma and Naib Nazim Malik Mohammad Awan on Wednesday complained that both the city and provincial governments had been ignoring development needs of the town despite "our repeated hue and cry." Nazims of various UCs and councillors were also present at the press conference.

They regretted that despite the assurances made by the president, governor, chief minister and Nazim, the town administration had not been provided with funds for development activities.

Mentioning that Lyari is the oldest area of the city, they said the town needed special attention and funds for repair and maintenance of roads, street lights, replacement of water and sewerage lines, disposal of litter, development of parks. However, they maintained that nobody had been given any fund for improvement in these areas.

Mr Jumma said that the total monthly earning of the town was Rs8.5 million, which was hardly sufficient for the salaries of staff and fuel of town's vehicles.

Since the town had no other source of income, the administration was unable to execute any development work, he stated. He said, "Today, we had a meeting with the chief secretary, and we told him that instead of loan, we need grant-in-aid to carry out development activities including repair of roads and maintenance of water and sewerage lines."

According to him, the chief secretary assured him that the City Nazim would be approached through the DCO to provide funds for development of the area. The Town Nazim conceded that the law and order situation in the town had been deteriorating for the past three months.

In the last three months, he added, over 100 people had been killed in the administrative jurisdictions of the town, but the city and provincial authorities had done nothing to improve and control law and order in the area.

He pointed out that innocent people were being killed by anti-social elements on the basis of ethnic, sect or language. Mr Jumma said attempts were being made to foment sectarian and ethic riots in the relatively peaceful area of the city by anti-social elements to achieve their nefarious designs.

He called for remedial measures to improve the situation before the things could reach at horrible stage. Earlier, Sindh Chief Secretary Dr Mutawakkal Kazi directed the DCO Karachi to hold a special meeting with Lyari Town Nazim and get grant-in aid approved for Lyari's development schemes, adds APP.

The chief secretary was presiding over a meeting held at his office in this regard. He also formed a four-member technical committee that would take an analytical review of schemes under Lyari Improvement Programme and submit its report within three weeks alongwith proposals for their implementation and funding.

To be headed by EDO (Works and Services) Shoaib Siddiqi, the committee will be comprised of Nazim Lyari Town, Chief Engineer (Sewerage) and Lyari Town Municipal Officer.

Through graphs, the chief secretary asked the DCO to adopt an effective line of action in view of technicalities of the sewerage problems involved. He emphasized the need for taking steps for construction and repair of Mirza Adam Khan Road, Sheedi Village Road, Fakir Durra Khan Road and other important roads and streets. He asked the DCO to personally supervise the same.

Dr Kazi also called for a report from the secretary health regarding performance of Lyari General Hospital and the 50-bed hospital at Mauripur Road.