RAWALPINDI, Aug 3: The city beautification plan is in the doldrums since the July 14 meeting of different local government departments during which implementation of the plan was reviewed, sources privy to the meeting told Dawn here on Sunday.

The first meeting was presided over by Punjab Minister for Local Bodies and Parliamentary Affairs Raja Basharat wherein a number of important decisions were made. The minister had also directed the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) to come up with concrete proposals in the next meeting on July 28.

The July 28 meeting was presided over by the chairman task force on beautification of big cities in Punjab, Sardar Azam Rashid. In this meeting, the RDA officials drew ire of the chairman task force for their confused vision and lack of home work.

Mr Azeem constituted a number of committees and directed execution of a pilot project of digital mapping of the city and remodelling of all the bus terminals. He also directed location of new sites for construction of new bridges on Nullah Leh and clearing the city of all illegal sign boards and wall-chalking.

The sources said during this meeting District Nazim Tariq Kiani had directed the RDA director metropolitan and city engineering, Makeen Shahbaz, to conduct a survey of all the bus terminals in the city within one day prior to preparing the remodelling plan. However, the sources added, nothing could be done in this regard, as the task was not as simple as Mr Kiani had taught it to be. They said the survey required weeks provided the authorities worked in the field.

The sources said the digital mapping of the city needed funds in advance, while the RDA had yet to get any funds either from the local or the provincial government to execute the plan, the sources said.

Similarly, the sources said, the committee constituted to clear all the commercial plazas of random sign boards also failed to impound even a single sign board from any of the plazas.

“The reason for this failure is that the local government comprises political figures, while the sign boards and plazas belong to the city’s business community - a big player in winning any election campaign at any level for any candidate. Therefore, the former does not want to ruffle the feathers of the latter,” the sources said.

The sources said the result of the next meeting scheduled to be held on August 17 would be no different from that of the previous meetings.