Sindh's urban affairs hampered by flawed devolution
By Noman Ahmed
Negligence on the part of concerned policy makers at the provincial and district level as well as urban management officials has caused unfortunate losses of life in Hyderabad (Dawn, 28 February 2004).
Several children and young people have died after falling into open drains since the past few months. The most recent tragedy was the death of a teenaged girl. Routine condolences and piece meal compensations have been offered by the administration without addressing the core problem. People have been demanding the improvement in the sewerage system including the covering of the drains, but to no avail.
Essential ingredients of urban life that are needed for sustaining neighbourhoods and cities are grossly inadequate. For instance, a sizable number of residents in Jacobabad had to take to streets last month to demand water supply. Seeing no progress, the water-hungry masses had to stage a hamper strike. The snags that lie in the way of completing the water supply works from Khertal canal are yet to be removed.
Urban areas in Sindh are experiencing a grave development and management crisis. Fast decay in the quality of life is caused by the snail pace of essential development works and lack of routine management tasks.
For instance, in Hyderabad the major city streets are in dire need of repairs. In smaller cities such as Shikarpur and Khairpur, the old neighbourhoods are in urgent need of rehabilitation due to the progressive decay caused by aging buildings, stagnating infrastructure and absence of routine maintenance and upkeep.
Thousands of families in the smaller towns of southern Sindh still await proper rehabilitation due to catastrophic displacement under torrential rains in July-August 2003.
As bureaucratic routine, hundreds of development schemes are launched by various departments each year to dispose the budgetary allocations. The impact of such schemes is hardly experienced. Lack of scientific analysis, proper outlining of priority areas and monitoring causes the expenditures go down the drain!
Situation in larger cities is also dismal. The looming water supply crises has already struck various areas of Karachi despite tall claims by the City District Government (CDGK) and Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB).
Poor management and maintenance has converted some of the posh areas of the city into slums. The common man was made to believe that after enforcement of the devolution plan, situation shall swiftly improve. Realities show otherwise. Many issues need to be assessed in an objective manner.
It was anticipated that the in-built ambiguities in the role and responsibilities of certain administrative tiers shall cause a hindrance in urban governance. For instance the districts and towns/tehsils/talukas were clearly assigned the task of approving the development plans for their respective jurisdictions [Sec 67(iv); clause 69 pursuant to 5th Schedule under Sec 195 of Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO), 2001]. Ever since the SLGO-2001 became effective and applied, many conflicts cropped up creating impedance in routine functioning of newly founded local government institutions.
After the ascent of elected provincial and federal government, the friction became more severe. With no effective mechanism to resolve the conflicts, the situation is becoming worse for the citizens.
After the dissolution, merging or devolution of previously existing local instructions, the citizens face a dilemma. They have to put up with a district/town or taluka government which has its hands tied due to the tutelage of the upper tiers. They also have to bear a provincial government which is trying to establish its writ by trimming down the outreach of the local government.
The propounders of the new system had possibly little idea about the scale of upheavals which were to be caused during the transition phase. For instance, previously the district management/deputy commissioner was responsible for maintenance of law and order, collection of revenue on behalf of the government, magisterial tasks and preparation of development schemes. This office was entirely abolished.
National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) failed to effectively vest these functions into the office of District Nazim and his associates. Ironically, some of these functions are now exercised by provincial bureaucracy as per the clout of respective departments. Thus instead of devolution, it has moved to over centralization.
Capacity of enforcement is severally hampered due to the lack of appropriate magisterial powers which the district governments have been demanding. It is ironic to note that the defunct authorities including metropolitan/municipal corporations and development authorities had greater capacity to enforce their writ in comparison to the present institutions.
The capacity evolved from the provisions in the respective laws such as KDA President's Order No. 5 of 1957 or the LDA/MDA Acts of 1993. These institutions at least attempted to regulate the development practices as per proviso of the laws and the institutional strength gained over the period of time.
One of the reasons for this state of affairs was the fact that provincial government used to extend support to local institutions, at least in its own self- interest. Now it seems that the writ of local institutions has been weakened and lost to provincial government, defeating the very spirit of devolution.
It has miserably failed to enforce what it is authorized under law. For instance, SLGO 2001 assigns the task of regulating building and construction activities to CDGK. However that task is currently performed by Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) which works independent of the city government. Other districts experience an even worse situation where full devolution of development authorities lies pending. Case of Hyderabad is an example.
The federal government and its institutions operate independent of the lower tiers. In many situations, they function in contravention to the prescriptions of local and even provincial government at the lower levels of urban functioning.
The CDGK and the government of Sindh (GoS) had issued directives to gradually curb down the water tanker operations in Karachi. The main logic cited for this action was to prevent the extensive damages caused to city roads/streets due to rampant movement of heavy tankers.
However a federal institution continues to commercially operate heavier water tankers. At the other levels, the federal government undertakes development works through its own institutions. Expressway, by passes and power sector projects are all undertaken directly through the federal tutelage. Obviously the capacity of local institutions does not increase beyond very primitive tasks.
It was hoped that after the enforcement of devolution plan, the district and town/taluka level administrations would be able to undertake developmental programmes on their own. This aspect required operational and financial autonomy to a minimum extent.
Actual scenario is the opposite of this anticipation. The human resource and institutional strength required to plan and execute development programmes should be strengthened. At best the district governments hire the services of consultants. Even the capacity to technically evaluate the proposals is very limited.
The planning and development department of Sindh had to do some of the basic works such as preparation of terms of reference for Hyderabad Development Authority regarding some of its development schemes. Another major problem is the financial autonomy.
The towns and talukas have very limited budget with hardly any resources to be spent on some of the most basic repair and maintenance works. During the last week of February, the Nazim of Lyari Town criticized the CDGK and other concerned government departments responsible for funds allocation and disbursement.
He lamented the fact that after payment of salaries to the staff, hardly any fund is left even to address some of the most pressing repair and maintenance tasks. Various other towns/talukas report similar situation.
If the current trend of managing the affairs continues in this direction, little good can be expected in the near future. The inter-governmental relations need a streamlining to a considerable extent. It so happens that for every matter, the Chief Secretary convenes a meeting, forms committees of different sorts and adopts a 'wait and see' approach. Thereafter the matter is dumped away. This practice must be stopped.
There should be an institutional structure to streamline policy and implementation issues without tutelage of the upper tiers. Local government commission should be activated and its performance analysed to suggest any corresponding improvements.
Ample provisions exist in the SLGO, 2001 for this action. Further recourse to the provincial legislature may be recommended if the need so arises. Clear outlining of the roles and responsibilities in the domain of planning and development must be done.
The provincial bureaucracy must act to build the capacity of local institutions. Instead of acting as an execution agency, it must facilitate the delegation of such tasks to local bodies to enhance their capacity. The financial strength of local institutions must be built beyond routine allocations. The federal and provincial governments must re-visit their relation with the local government. The onus of action lies on them.
