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| August 08, 2007 | Wednesday | Rajab 23, 1428 |
KARACHI: Development project turns into nightmare for villagers
KARACHI, Aug 7: An Asian Development Bank-funded project to improve the social and economic wellbeing of four southern districts of Sindh is suffering great delays and its segment about the development of model villages has proved to be a nightmare for the villagers, says a recently-conducted survey.
The Sindh Rural Development Project (SRDP) was launched by the government of Sindh and the ADB to alleviate the social conditions of Thatta, Badin, Sanghar and Mirpurkhas with an estimated project cost of $62.5 million, of which $50 million is financed by the bank.
The project has been under implementation since 2004 with the loan closing date of June 30, 2010. As per the understanding between the Sindh government and the ADB, at least one model village was to be developed in each project district. However, the study concluded through consultative workshops, that that process was fraught with delays as well as political interference.
Referring to Essa Khan Bhatti village of Sanghar, the researchers gathered that that decision proved to be a nightmare for the villagers. They said that officials visited their village some six months ago and conducted a survey. Later, they informed them that their village was being developed as a model village, thus they had to remove all the katcha boundaries of their houses and demolish their unnecessary infrastructure.
According to the villagers, after that the officials visited a number of times on the pretext of survey and forced the residents to serve them meals. The villagers said they removed the katcha boundaries as advised by the officials, yet they were still waiting to see any development activity in the village.
The tale of the residents of villages in Badin, which were also selected in the model village scheme, is not much different. The SRDP authorities had selected two villages – Karim Dino Mosaipoto and Hoat Moosaipoto – in Union Council Kadi Qazia and announced that they would construct roads and ponds, supply clean water and develop drainage and other infrastructure.
In the meantime, Wasim Akhtar, Adviser to the Chief Minister on Home Affairs, laid the foundation stone of the model project scheme, village water supply and link road on September 29, 2005. However, according to the villagers, despite the lapse of around two years no substantial work had been done there.
The villagers told researchers that the authorities filled the katcha road with earth for three kilometres instead of paving it with concrete.
According to the villagers, the study says, they were being forced to arrange meals for those working on the katcha road as well as the visiting officials of the Sindh Katchi Abadis Authority.
The villagers said that they had their CCB (Citizens Community Board) registered and were ready to carry out development activities through the CCB and ready to pay 20 per cent of the total development expenditures, says the study.
The study is conducted by Adam Malik and Sikander Brohi representing different civil society organisations.
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