IT was a week in which the two main administrative bodies of Karachi — the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) — confronted each other on how much work each should be assigned to do.

On Oct 22, 1971 it was reported that the KMC had finally decided it would not undertake any responsibility for rendering civic services in KDA areas, including Clifton and Gulshan-i-Iqbal. The corporation had done that because of the increasing projected plans to include within its jurisdiction the two townships of North Karachi and Qasba Colony. In the last nine months, the KMC’s area of functioning had been extended to Drigh Township, the housing societies’ zone and Qasba and North Karachi. In terms of population, it meant an addition of approximately one million while in terms of area it came to more than double of what it was three years back.

The KDA wanted the KMC to take the responsibility in respect of Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Clifton, too, on an “agency basis” until such time that these localities were finally transferred to the corporation. The authority proposed that whatever could be recovered from the landlords of these townships in the shape of general tax, fire tax, water tax and conservancy should be retained by the KMC in lieu of the services rendered to them. However, the corporation had come to the conclusion that the receipts from the thin population in the two neighbourhoods would be nowhere near the actual amount spent on providing them with basic civic amenities.

A day later, on Oct 23, it was announced that the KMC would approach the government to enhance its financial powers. The necessity had arisen because, according to the corporation, under the present “ridiculously low” financial set-up, it invariably failed to match its activities with the actual budget provisions; and a very substantial part of the available funds was surrendered at the end of the year.

While all of this was happening, the KDA did its best to prove it was busy with important projects. On Oct 20, for example, it was claimed that new pipelines were being laid out by the KDA to supply water from the reservoir at Orangi Hills. The 170-ft-high reservoir, which was commissioned in April, could not be operated fully because the pipelines failed to withstand the pressure of supply from it. With the opening of the new lines, residents of North Karachi, North Nazimabad, Qasba Colony and Orangi were expected to get water directly from the reservoir.

But the Sindh capital was expanding at the speed of light and therefore there were many areas that still needed attention of the authorities. On Oct 21, the Joint Research Project for Slum Improvement and Urban Development for Karachi began with an in-depth study of the city’s slums. Preliminary surveys of nearly 100 slum pockets had already been completed. The first survey started from Chanesar Goth, one of the oldest localities across the railway line near PECHS. It revealed that the goth had no civic amenities — electricity, the bus service, the sewerage system etc. Research described it as the “most underdeveloped and ill-planned” sector of the Chanesar Union Committee.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2021