KARACHI, June 12: City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal has promised that the project for supply of six million gallon daily additional water to Lyari Town will be completed in a month.

Almost 90 per cent of work on the project had been completed, he said while talking to the nazims, naib nazims and councillors of different union councils of Lyari Town, most of them from the opposition group, at his office on Tuesday.

The city nazim briefed them on various projects undertaken by the city government for the residents of Lyari.

However, the elected representatives had mixed feelings about the projects. Some of them expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of basic necessities in their localities while others appreciated the nazim for resolving the decade-old issue of water shortage.

A couple of councillors expressing no confidence in the nazim criticised the city government for its apathy towards the plight of people. They said the nazim did nothing for the provision of adequate health, education, infrastructure and other facilities in Lyari.

A woman councillor asked Mr Kamal to give priority to the problems of Lyari, as it was still backward despite being one of the oldest areas of Karachi. She said the nazim should visit Lyari to get aware of the real issues.

Mr Kamal said the development work in the city was being carried out without any discrimination and Lyari was not an exception. “It is my initiative that I called you people in my office to inform you about what the Haq Parast leadership is doing in Lyari,” he remarked.

Almost every participant of the meeting urged the nazim to visit Lyari on a regular basis and hold regular meetings with them at his office in order to get first-hand information about the problems of the town.

Mr Kamal assured the delegation that he would invite them again within a week or two and listen to their problems in the presence of the city government department heads and all their problems would be solved.

The meeting was followed by a visit to different sites of the water supply project.

Briefing the elected representatives regarding what he called the historic work to supply water to Lyari Town, he said the city government was implementing a development programme for Lyari.

He said consultation with the elected representatives of the town on the issue of water distribution and installation of an additional waterline would continue on a regular basis.

Mr Kamal said 90 per cent of the water problem in the town would be solved with the commission of the new line.

When one of the councillors requested the nazim to announce a Rs50 million package for Lyari, he said he was ready to sanction Rs500 million for good schemes.

Lyari Town Nazim Malik Fayyaz, KWSB additional vice-chairman Moin Khan, city government officials and others were present.