HYDERABAD, April 28: The City Taluka Council convener on Wednesday called upon the Water and Sanitation Agency managing director and executive engineer to attend the council session on Thursday to answer its members' questions on non-supply of water to different areas.

Convener Abdul Qadeer Naghar called them when he took up a resolution tabled by Abdul Waheed Qureshi. The mover of the resolution demanded that the Sindh and district governments should take notice of negligence of Wasa which was forcing the people to take to the streets.

He said that water ponds located adjacent to the Akram Wah should be cleared of silt accumulated over the years due to which storage capacity of the ponds had been reduced. He said that Wasa was in the habit of transferring its responsibility to others and added that there had been constant interruption in water supply as the Wasa officials did not store water.

The convener deferred a resolution of the same mover for want of evidence after some members observed that the resolution pertaining to expected closure of Khadija Girls High School in Mukhi House was based on a press report. Mr Qureshi staged a walkout after the taluka regulation officer expressed unawareness regarding silt in a drain near Pakistan Chowk.

Anwar Chundrigar drew the attention of the convener towards desilting of the drain failing which it could create havoc if there were heavy rains. He said that encroachments had also been made on the drain and encroachers had resisted anti-encroachment staff.

Abdul Hameed rose on a point of order and said that special allowance was not being paid to the employees despite passage of a resolution on July 28, 2002 in this regard.

The convener asked the audit department to explain as to why was the payment still pending. The session also adopted another resolution of Mr Qureshi, urging the federal minister for communications to set up a post office and install letter boxes in Paretabad.

He said that the post office of the area had been closed, causing problems for the population which had increased manifold and the post office at Phulelli Bridge could not cater to its needs.