KARACHI, March 28: Despite the passage of over three months since its inception, the Municipal Services department of the city government has failed to perform its core functions, as many of its tasks are still being performed by other departments.

Well-placed sources in the city government told Dawn that at the time of its creation, the responsibilities of solid waste management, vector control and fumigation, storm water drainage, sanitation and environment were assigned to the Municipal Services department.

A notification, issued at the time of establishment of the Municipal Services department, said that the new department would be responsible for solid waste management, treatment and disposal including landfill sites and recycling plants; sanitation, conservancy, removal and disposal of silage refuse, garbage, drainage, public toilets; fumigation and vector control; industrial and hospital hazardous and toxic waste treatment and disposal; environment control including control of air, water and soil pollution.

Instead of taking over all the functions, the sources said, the department was only performing the tasks of solid waste management and environment.

The function of vector control and fumigation still rests with the Health department, while the task of cleaning of storm water drains and sanitation is being performed by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB).

The sources said that City Nazim Mustafa Kamal wanted to empower the Municipal Services department but could not do so due to the bureaucracy and certain vested interests in the city government, who did not want to hand over ‘their’ functions to the newly created department.

EDO Municipal Services Masood Alam, however, told Dawn that his department was created in the middle of the fiscal year when all the budgetary allocations had been made to other departments performing functions related to the tasks assigned to the Municipal Services department.

He said that at present solid waste management is under the control of Municipal Services, while an Environment Control Department is being set up by the city government.

“It has been decided that till June 30, 2007, the Health Department and KWSB will perform the functions of fumigation and cleaning of storm water drains respectively, and from the new fiscal (July 1, 2007) all these core functions would be performed only by the Municipal Services department,” he added.

However, he did not agree with the notion that the department is not fully active.

“There is a status quo. It is a new department and every new thing takes some time to take off,” he added.