KARACHI, Aug 3: Faced by multifarious civic problems with inadequate financial resources to address them, the municipal administration of the Lyari Town was perturbed over the decision of the provincial government slashing the town’s fund on the pretext of paying KESC arrears and ignoring the needs of the town at a time when it had to handle the rain emergency.
Town Nazim Malik Mohammad Fayyaz described the decision as an injustice to the town, saying that the town had already been suffered due to financial constraints as it has no sound revenue generation base.
He said due to the cut in funds by the Sindh government; the town employees could not be paid salaries for the month of July, as the town was already facing a lot of problems due to the non-availability of funds.
Mr Fayyaz said that the town needed extra funds to meet its day-to-day expenses including payment of salaries, petrol bills, medical allowances, OT bills and other office expenditures. Besides that, the town nazim said the town had to bear an extra burden of 15 per cent raise in salaries announced in the federal budget.
He said the matter had been brought to the notice of the higher authorities including the city nazim that the cut in the funds would further worsen the financial position of the town and it would also ultimately affect the civic works in the town.
Financial constraints have remained a constant problem in Lyari Town ever since it’s creation which is affecting its municipal functions. Last year, the president had announced a special package for the town when its civic facility had broken down during monsoon.
In fact, it is the only town in the city which is crippled financially due to a lack of a sound generation resource as its commercial areas had been merged with the Saddar Town. Community leaders and local NGOs had opposed the demarcation of the town. Now the town is depended financially on the city or 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.
They also argued that indifferent attitude of other development agencies had further aggravated the situation as the uplift works carried out by these agencies had been left unattended. They were of the view that ill-planning and lack of coordination among the civic agencies had created a mess in this old locality, where there was no social mechanism of accountability of government functionaries and contractors.
