KARACHI, June 6: Financial constraints have remained a constant problem in Lyari Town during the current fiscal year as a result that the town failed to perform its day-to-day municipal functions. Barring a few main roads and link roads, where repair and improvement works were either carried out by the city government under Tameer-i-Karachi programme or the MPAs development fund programme, no significant progress could be witnessed as far as delivery of municipal services is concerned.
In fact, it is the only town in the city which is crippled financially due to lack of a sound resource generation base as its commercial areas had been merged with Saddar Town. Lyari Town is depended financially on the city or the provincial governments for carrying out its civic duties.
Presently faced with the worst financial crisis, the town could not even perform its normal civic functions which included lifting of garbage and maintenance of link and street roads and installation of streetlights
Residents and community leaders are of the view that demarcation of the town was made without considering its resource generation base and majority of the commercial areas in the old city area had been merged with Saddar Town.
Moreover, they said that indifferent attitude of other development agencies had further aggravated the situation. They said although the city government had undertaken works on a few roads, the progress was slow due to lack of coordination and proper planning between the officials of the two municipal authorities.
They regretted that the area had been left undeveloped due to sheer negligence of authorities and development agencies. According to them, while other areas of the city were planned and developed in 1950s and 60s, Lyari was left with an outdated infrastructure that became entirely inadequate to meet the needs of a growing population.
A social worker, criticizing the civic agencies for their mismanagement and ill-planning, said: “The fault is partly ours. We are sentimental about our land and family system. Instead of occupying a vacant place, we simply build an additional floor to the already congested space.” Thus, small plots hardly enough for one family are occupied by several families in Lyari. As a result, intense crowding had placed incredible demands on both water supply and sewage disposal. Moreover, water and sewerage lines laid in the middle of the 19th century were still being used, he added.
Another senior community leader said there had always been sheer negligence on the part of civic agencies. He claimed that huge funds meant for the development of Lyari had always been misappropriated by. He said: “The government knows where the money goes. From top to bottom — engineers, contractors and executives— everyone is taking his share,” he remarked.
He deplored that there was no social mechanism for accountability of government officials. He recalled that in the past huge funds amounting to billion of rupees had been sanctioned for the development of infrastructure in Lyari, particularly in water and sewerage sectors, but no progress had been witnessed on ground.
The town officials have always blamed city government for lack of cooperation and shortage of funds as the main hurdles in the execution of development works. But, the residents and community leaders argued that it was the responsibility of the civic agencies to solve their problems.
