HYDERABAD, April 28: Members of the Hyderabad district council complained on Wednesday that work on development schemes initiated in their union councils last year had not been completed so far.

Speaking at the council session here, they lamented the slow progress of work and said according to reports every contractor had been given more than five schemes at a time with the result that all of them were now lying incomplete.

Convener Nawab Rashid Ali Khan presided over the session. The Executive Development Officer (Works and Services), Habibur Rehman, informed the session that work had been delayed because of non-availability of sugar cess funds.

He said that contractors were not ready to work as they did not expect early release of funds. There was a consensus among members that measures should be taken to complete these schemes as fiscal year 2003-04 was about to end.

Several members, including Khawind Bux Jahejo, Qazi Qadeer, Miran Mohammad Shah, Saleem Khanzada, Ali Nawaz Kutrio, Khushnood Ali Khan, Shaukat Qaimkhani, Rana Mehmood, Rauf Jafri, Ibrahim Chishti and Firdous Abro raised concern over delay in completion of schemes. They also put up questions to the EDOs of finance and planning, services and work, and revenue and generation.

EDO Habibur Rehman was asked by Convener Nawab Rashid Ali Khan to give a clear date for the completion of these schemes. The EDO was also asked to point out hurdles being faced by his department in completion of work.

Members elected on reserve seats also said that they did not know the fate of their development schemes. Most of the questions put up by the members were identical in nature as all of them wanted to know whether their schemes would be completed before the end of current fiscal year.

The session was informed that tenders for the development schemes were called in May 2003, but work had not been completed as yet. The members said that one contractor was working on various schemes at a time and that was why work had been delayed.

Some members demanded that such contractors should be black-listed for unnecessarily dragging development schemes and proposed that only one contractor should be asked to work in a particular union council.

The members also stated that no attention had been paid to their complaints of poor quality of work. They observed that contractors had abandoned schemes half-way through for unknown reasons. The members said that recent rains also added to the problems as many incomplete projects had been damaged by the downpour.

EDO Habibur Rehman informed the session that primary reason for the delay pertained to non-availability of sugar cess funds of Rs82.5 million for the year 2002-03. He said that these funds had lapsed.

Mr Habibur Rehman said that ADP schemes were being executed and 15 to 20 per cent schemes that were still incomplete would automatically become ongoing schemes in the next fiscal.

MUET: The Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Vice-Chancellor Dr A.Q.K. Rajput appointed Prof Dr A.A. Abro, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, as the focal person.