HYDERABAD, Sept 9: Sindh Minister for Local Bodies, Katchi Abadis and Spatial Development Mohammad Hussain Khan has said that the Sindh government has decided to seek $800 million loan from the World Bank to carry out development works in the cities and towns of the province.

Presiding over a meeting of taluka municipal officers (TMOs) of the province at district nazim secretariat Mr Khan warned that the builders and developers would not be allowed to swallow people’s hard earned money invested in private housing schemes.

He asked the TMOs to issue no-objection certificates (NOCs) to only those housing schemes, which were approved by the town planning department.

The National Accountability Bureau had taken serious notice of the loot and plunder by builders and formulated a town planning action plan requiring them to enter into a written agreement with the taluka municipal administrations concerned, he said.

He said that the agreement guaranteed that the housing schemes would have basic facilities, they would be completed within stipulated period and 15 per cent of the plots in each scheme would be mortgaged to the TMA.

Mr Khan said that the builders would not be allowed to raise the plots’ prices without permission of the department concerned, neither would they be allowed to cancel any plot’s allotment.

He directed the TMOs not to issue any NOC unless the builder put in place basic structure. A summary suggesting supervision of work on private housing schemes had already been moved to the chief minister for approval, he said.

The minister said that 119 town planning engineers would be appointed to grade-17 on contract basis to keep an eye on the planning of private housing schemes after the summary had been approved.He said that the government would provide fire tenders and garbage lifting vehicles to all the TMAs and make available big fire tenders in large cities to meet any eventuality.

He directed the TMOs to get resolutions passed by their respective taluka councils regularising katchi abadis and recruiting sanitary staff to maintain cleanliness. The recruitment made without such resolutions would be considered to be illegal, he said.