HYDERABAD: A councillor of the Cantonment Board Hyderabad (CBH) has strongly protested over non-release of funds for his constituency which mainly covers the tax-paid area of the board, saying that his repeated requests for funds over the last two years were falling on deaf ears.

Mohammad Iqbal Memon, who belongs to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) registered his angry protest during the CBH meeting held on Tuesday. It was chaired by CBH president, who is the station commander of Hyderabad.

Memon, who is from Ward-5, lost his cool while arguing for the release of funds for his constituency. A CBH member, who was an army officer, asked him not to lose temper.

Memon argued that he was representing the people of his area and his repeated requests for funds were being ignored. He said that it was only patchwork that had been done in his area in the wake of laying of gas pipelines by the Sui Southern Gas Company. He said he had submitted proposals for the construction of six roads in different localities of his constituency but they were turned down. Similarly, he added, his request for the installation of sodium streetlights was also denied.

He argued that all other councillors were given funds for development works in their respective areas but the roads he had proposed were not being built. “These are the areas where residents are paying multiple taxes to the CBH”, he said, adding that funds were being spent in katchi abadis, where the board did not levy any taxes.

He said that Bhurgari Road, Chamber of Commerce Road and Bohri Bazaar Road were not being built although they were meant for prime commercial areas.

CBH vice president Abdul Rasheed, who also belongs to the MQM-P, told Dawn that the president (station commander) observed that the areas identified by Memon should be visited.

Rasheed said that the establishment of a filter plant in Memon’s ward was approved and development works costing Rs0.9 million had already been done. He said he supported his colleague over his requests for funds. However, he denied reports that he [Memon] was snubbed by some army officer at the CBH meeting.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2017