July 09, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 5, 1429

KARACHI, July 8: The town municipal administration of Saddar has urged the federal authorities to sanction a special grant for the town so that it can pay for the facilities it provides to the individuals who do not reside within its jurisdiction but spend the entire day as their offices and shops are located in the town.

Speaking at a news briefing at his office here on Monday night, Saddar Town Nazim Mohammad Dilawar said that apart from catering to the needs of what he called “millions of outsiders”, the town was also providing services to the VIPs and other high-ups of the government.

Highlighting the importance of his town, the nazim said that Saddar was the commercial hub of the city with the central shopping areas including, the historic Empress Market, and Zaibunnissa Street, government offices and courts situated within its jurisdiction.

“Our town has a population of one million people but it soars to around 2.5 to three million during the daytime because of the people coming from the rest of the city for work, which clearly shows that we share ample burden of other towns of the city and the government agencies”, said the town nazim.

He said that as many as two million shops and other commercial entities were operating in the town and they disposed of their waste on the roads and streets almost on a daily basis.

Mr Dilawar said that he had raised the issue during various meetings with the high-ups including, Sindh governor, and the city nazim. During those meetings, the nazim added, he had demanded compensation for the fund the town utilised for the provision of various services to the non-residents and various government offices.

He said that due to prevalent situation, the town was left with an inadequate amount for its uplift projects.

The town nazim said that the Rs985.923 million budget with a surplus of Rs1.216 million was not sufficient enough to meet the growing needs of the municipal services.

He said that the town municipal administration required a special fund to boost its development activities. The nazim said that the funds generated from the town’s own resources and the OZT grant received from the provincial government were inadequate to meet the development requirement of an important town such as Saddar. The nazim said due to these reasons, he was compelled to seek assistance from the federal authorities so as to help the town overcome its financial burden.

Encroachments

He admitted that encroachments were one of the major problems facing the town and various operations launched to check the menace in the past could not yield any tangible results because of high-level connections of the “professional encroachers”.

According to Mr Dilawar, corruption plays an important role in the encroachment business. He said the encroachers had become powerful by greasing the palms of the relevant authorities.

Giving budget details, he said for 2008-09, Rs221 million had been earmarked for the construction of roads, streets, pavements etc, Rs71.40 million for streetlights, installation of high masts and improvement of electrical works, and Rs53.80 million for the development of parks, playgrounds and green belts.

He said that Rs4 million had been set aside for minorities and Rs20 million for schemes proposed by the Citizen’s Community Board, while Rs15 million had been kept for house building loan for the town’s employees.