KARACHI, Dec 19: Rural areas of Karachi, stretching over 1,200 square kilometres, with an estimated population of 1.2 million, are suffering due to government’s apathy, as no development projects to mitigate the problem of the area people were being carried out.

About 1,200 villages, with population varying from 200 to 5,000 people per village, mostly fall under the union councils of Gabopat, Mangopir, Mubarak Village and Malir.

It is learnt that total population of rural areas is 665,498, out which 107,898 are male. All the villages have Muslim communities, most of whom are Sindhi and Baluchi speaking, living in ‘pucca-Kacha’ type houses.

Most of these villages lack tap water, sanitation and drainage facilities, and water tankers are the only means of catering to the water needs of the area people.

Most of the villages do not have electricity and telephone facilities, while road infrastructure in these areas is in dilapidated conditions, as few roads have proper carpeting.

Majority of the villages depend on agriculture, except those in the coastal area, where fishing is the source of income for most of the people.

The literacy rate in these villages is less than the average figures of literacy in country.

Majority of the population is either employed as labourers or farmers, while these areas are facing environmental degradation in its acute form.

Health facilities are not satisfactory in the areas, and hundreds of women and children died due to lack of healthcare facilities.

Area people mostly live in poverty and are usually malnourished, with high incidence of fever, rheumatism, malaria, and stomach problems.

Several government dispensary buildings are without medical staff, who is drawing salaries every month.

The elected representatives of these areas severely criticized the city government for ignoring the rural areas in the Karachi Development Package, announced by President General Pervez Musharraf for improving the city infrastructure.

They alleged that the city government was planing to spend all the package funds in urban areas, while turning a blind eye towards the problems faced by the rural area people.

They had sent several letters to the city Nazim and the DCO to include projects for these areas in the package but no attention had been paid to the issue, the representatives lamented.—PPI