HYDERABAD, July 21: District Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil has said that the proposal for declaring Hyderabad a city government is purely an administrative decision and strictly within the ambit of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO).

Mr Jamil said in his address to a joint meeting of nazims and naib nazims of talukas and union councils with the adviser to the chief minister on local bodies, Waseem Akhtar, at his secretariat on Thursday that the elected representatives should voice their reservations about the proposed city government only after thorough perusal of the SLGO.

If it was proved that the city government would pose a danger to the social and ethnic harmony of the district then the proposal would be withdrawn, he said adding that nothing was more important than peace and harmony.

He said that some people were raising non-issues to mislead people, despite the fact that SLGO had clearly mentioned that a city government could be established in any district where the population exceeded one million, 65 per cent of which was engaged in other occupations than agriculture and where need was felt for improving administration and extending basic facilities to people.

Mr Jamil announced that each union council of the district would get Rs2 to Rs3 million to carry out schemes for water supply, sewerage and roads under the supervision of district monitoring committee.

The district would ensure provision of filtered water to all by raising the number of filter plants in urban areas with 20 small filter plants in each union council, he said.

Expressing concern over increase in hepatitis-B and C cases in rural areas, the nazim stressed the need for supply of clean drinking water to check the spread of killer disease and urged the nazims and naib nazims to cooperate with Wasa in the recovery of water supply and sewerage charges.

Mr Akhtar said that the present government had given Rs29 billion development package to Karachi and more than Rs10 billion to Hyderabad and assured the elected representatives that the funds would be spent judiciously and without any discrimination.

He said that successive governments in the past had neglected Sindh, which generated 70 per cent of the total revenue for the country and people even in this modern age had no basic facilities such as water, power, health, education and metalled roads.

He said that it was for the first time in the country’s history that both the president and prime minister did not belong to feudal classes.

He said that it was indeed a good omen that the federal, provincial and district governments enjoyed harmonious relations which had greatly helped lead the province to progress.

Qasimabad Taluka Nazim Noor Mohammad Shoro, Latifabad Taluka Nazim Shabbir Hussain Kaimkhani and nazims and naib nazims of union councils of all the four talukas attended the meeting.