KARACHI: Lyari Town at loss with change in boundaries
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 6: Lyari Town is without a sound resource generation base as its commercial areas, including Lea Market and Timber Market, had been merged with Saddar Town under the plan of new local bodies system.
As a result, the municipal administration is faced with constant financial problems, thereby affecting its development works.
A survey of the town shows that no significant works have been carried out in the town during the current fiscal year. Roads are either tattered or not properly maintained; there is no effective system for the disposal of domestic waste; roads and streets are filled with garbage and flowing of choked gutter lines is a common sight.
During a recent meeting, the town nazim admitted that it is the only town in the city which is financially crippled because of a lack of sound revenue base. According to him, the town is dependant financially on the city or provincial governments for carrying out its day-to-day civic duties.
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 had been merged with Saddar Town.
More importantly, they argued that indifferent attitude of other development agencies had further aggravated the situation. Though the city government had undertaken repairs on a few roads, the progress was slow, the case of Shah Latif Bhitai Road being an evident example.
They squarely blamed sheer negligence of higher authorities for ignoring the locality. Arguing that other areas of the city were planned and developed in the 1950s and ’60s, they said Lyari was left with an outdated infrastructure that became entirely inadequate to meet the needs of a growing population.
A social worker, criticising the civic agencies for their mismanagement and ill-planning, said: “Huge funds meant for development purposes had always been misappropriated.
He also regretted that “there is no mechanism for accountability of government officials,” saying that in the past huge funds amounting to billion of rupees had been sanctioned for development of infrastructure but no progress had been witnessed.
On the other hand, town officials have always blamed the city government for lack of cooperation, saying that shortage of funds is the main hurdle in the execution of development works.
