KARACHI, Dec 19: There should be only one agency handling civic matters of the entire city so as to resolve issues in a hassle-free manner and people will then have a clear idea of where to go and which organisation to approach in case of any problem.

This was demanded at a meeting on ‘The perpetual crisis — the delivery of basic civic utilities to the city of Karachi’ on Tuesday. It was organised jointly by Karachi Women’s Peace Committee and the Pakistan Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Organisations.

Speakers pointed out that during and after the recent monsoon the entire drain network of the city had collapsed and various government organisations just to avoid public criticism rather than getting on with the clean up operation were involved in exchange of words in their bids to shift the responsibility to other organisation.

Naib City Nazim Nasreen Jalil said that only one-third of the city’s land was controlled by the city government while the rest was under control of different cantonment boards, railways, KPT, etc, and all organisations had their own rules which created problems in solving civic issues. She also said that the government alone could not solve all the issues and communities had to come forward and join hands with the government to solve their issues.

Mrs Jalil said that a major chunk of uplift funds was reserved for projects prepared by community boards – under which around 25 per cent of the finance had to be provided by the people while the rest would be provided by the civic agency.

She said that under the new plan, drains were being constructed along roads and all utility services were also being shifted to one side of the road so that the roads were not dug up repeatedly for carrying out repairs.

Earlier, Sindh Ombudsman Yusuf Jamal said that the major problem being faced by the Karachiites was population explosion – by birth and owing to influx from other parts of the country – which was putting an extra pressure on the fragile infrastructure of the city.

While, stressing the need for community partnership, he suggested that nazims and people through NGOs should join hands and with coordination and consultation discuss issues that had been piling up for the past many decades.

Earlier, various people belonging to different parts of the city raised their area problems.

Earlier, Dr Salima Ahmad, Nargis Rehman, Anis Haroon, Dr Naseem Salahuddin, Rashida Patel, Abdul Razzak, Prof Nuzhat, Sabiha Moosavi, Dr Farhat Nasir, Syeda Qamarunnisa, and others also spoke.