KARACHI, Oct 30: With the establishment of the new city government setup, the bureaucracy in Malir Town has started misguiding people that Saudia Colony, a 20-year-old KDA-approved locality, does not fall in the jurisdiction of the city government.

They say the locality comprises over 700 residential units in sectors 8-B, 8-A and Sector 9 in Malir Extension, Khokhrapar, and the KDA was the sole agency responsible for the recovery of all sorts of dues, and handling of land transfers, mutation and leases.

The residents of Saudia Colony, UC-6 (Gharibabad) are in a fix as their requests for civic problems are turned down by officials, who say that the area does not fall within city government limits.

They say the KWSB staff too presents lame excuses for not resolving problems of the people of the locality.

This has been happening since the new devolution plan took shape over four years back.

They said they had been facing problems of water shortage, choked sewerage lines, and garbage disposal.

But for all practical purposes, the town or union council staffs treat the locality like a katchi abadi where no proper arrangement for sanitation has been made.

They (staff) said that if the defunct KDA was responsible for not handing over the locality to the city government, it was not their fault.

They added that now when all departments had come under one roof – of the city government – why was a KDA-approved locality being ignored and treated like a katchi abadi.

They said the city government’s KDA wing was responsible for the malaise as all land transfers and allotments were made by the KDA land department with their offices in Saudabad. The Saudia Colony has a large number of leased residential units.

The area people have urged the City Nazim, Mustafa Kamal, to look into their grievances.

Presently, the water supply and sewerage networks were being laid on the Communications Minister, Shamim Ahmed’s, quota, they informed.

Since its inception in 1985, the area people said, the area got civic facilities through either a senator’s quota or some other arrangement. Even electricity poles and wires were provided from Senator Javed Jabbar’s quota in the 80s.

The area is without metalled roads and streets, and there is no arrangement for proper cleaning.

Residents have demanded the city nazim to come to their rescue and order immediate transfer of the locality to the city government, otherwise they would continue to suffer, and no development budget would be allocated for their locality.

They said areas like the Mohammadi and Madina colonies, which had emerged on encroached lands i.e. playgrounds and amenity plots of Saudia Colony, could be called katchi abadis but not the Saudia Colony itself.

They hoped the city nazim would remove this injustice, and order immediate steps for the locality’s welfare.