KARACHI, May 4: The lingering tussle between the Sindh government and the city district government over the control of KBCA seems to be over with a declaration by the former that a 'Building Control Group of Offices' has become the 16th group of offices of the city district government.
A notification issued by the Sindh government's local government department on April 30, said inter alia "In exercise of the powers conferred by Sections 35 read with Section 14 of the SLGO, 2001, the government of Sindh is pleased to declare 16th group of offices in the city district government, Karachi, under the name and title of "Building Control Group of Offices."
With the issuance of notification No SO(L&C)HTP/1-8/KBCA/03, dated April 30, 2004, the Sindh government has held that the its Housing and Town Planning Department's previous three notifications dated Oct 9, 2002, have stood rescinded with immediate effect.
According to sources, all the authorities concerned, including National Reconstruction Bureau chairman, Sindh governor and chief minister, city Nazim and DCO, have been informed about the decision through the April 30 notification.
Sources in the CDGK were of the view that the tug of war between the provincial government and the CDGK would come to a logical end with the latter gaining control of the Building Control Group of Offices the city nazim being appointed as 'Authority' for the entire Karachi in accordance with the devolution plan.
"In fact, the lingering controversy over the control of not only the KBCA, but also other organizations/departments such as the Sindh Kutchi Abadis Authority and Fisheries, was fast causing constant deterioration in the working conditions in the local government institutions," they pointed out, and expressed the hope that the provincial government would now waste no more time in fulfilling other requirements of the SLGO.
They cited the uncertainty prevailing in those organizations which are supposed to be devolved to the city government under the ordinance but are either yet to be devolved or partially devolved, and observed that this was the 'root-cause of the ongoing bickering' between the two sides.
The sources further observed that heads of most of such organizations were actually performing their duties independently and that there was no coordination between these departments and the CDGK. They hope that the two sides would maintain better working relations now.
