RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment boards have failed to launch any development projects in the current fiscal year due to the poor tax and fee collection.

Both the cantonments had promised to improve the condition of roads and the water supply system while announcing their budgets for the fiscal year 2018-19.

The RCB allocated Rs175 million for new and Rs221 million for ongoing projects while the CCB allocated Rs120 million for the new projects.

However, during the last five months no new uplift work could be launched and the residents are facing shortage of water, poor sanitation and dilapidated streets and roads.

A senior official of the CCB told Dawn that since the change of the government in the centre and province in August, the civic bodies had not received funds committed by the previous PML-N government.

He said the new government had its own priorities and would start development work as per its own policy and would give funds to its own elected members.

He said all elected members of the CCB belonged to the opposition PML-N and they had no say in the government. As a result, the civic body is suffering. However, he said development funds allocated in the budget would be utilised for schemes prepared by the elected members.

The poor tax collection is the main reason for the shortage of funds, said the official.

When contacted, CCB Vice President Raja Irfan Imtiaz said due to the shortage of funds development work could not be launched.

However, he said the civic body had sent proposals for schemes in all the 10 wards to the Military Lands and Cantonments Department for final approval and after getting a green signal the projects would be launched.

The CCB has given approval for the repair and maintenance of roads and streets as well as water supply schemes. He said the work would be launched soon.

The board also gave approval to the establishment of two dispensaries in the civilian areas. He said funds would be provided after the completion of the feasibility which would take around a month.

He admitted that no major development work had been launched in the cantonment areas in the last five months. The elected members would contact the government for the release of funds as the civic body had no direct funding from the federal government.

On the other hand, a senior official of the RCB said the civic body was struggling to collect fees and property tax on commercial and residential units to start development work.

He said at present the civic body was facing a financial crisis as it had not sufficient funds to meet its day-to-day expenditures.

RCB spokesman Qaiser Mehmood said work on the development of residential areas would be started soon. He said the tax collection target would be achieved in coming days and the money collected through RCB’s own sources would be spent on development activities.

He said water supply and construction of roads and streets were the priority of the elected members and they had submitted proposals to the civic body.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2018