HARIPUR, May 17: Though faced with enormous pressure from certain quarters, the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) is committed to clear the city of the menace of encroachments, and as a part of its beautification plan it would soon launch a well-organized drive in Haripur.

This was stated by Haripur Tehsil Nazim Iftikhar Ashraf Khan. He was speaking to newsmen at the press club here on Thursday evening.

Accompanied by Naib Nazim Amin Khan Badhora, the Tehsil Nazim dwelt on a number of problems faced by the citizens, ranging from sanitation to environment, water scarcity and municipal services.

Khan said as under the Local Government Ordinance 2000 the TMA was supposed to check the temporary as well as uncemented encroachments in the city. However, if the district government ordered, he stressed, the TMA would forthwith remove even the concrete encroachments, which, according to him, were seven to 11 feet on both sides of the main bazaar as also on the link roads.

“If it (district government) asks us for an operation against the cemented encroachments, we definitely will remove them without any delay,” he emphatically said, though indicating certain pressures from a group of elected people to the contrary.

Khan, known as a firebrand Tehsil Nazim, challenged his opponents for bringing forth any proof of mismanagement or embezzlement of a single penny.

About the scarcity of water in different areas of the Tehsil, he said a sum of Rs200,000 had been earmarked for water supply through TMA tankers to all the affected areas.

He pointed out that the TMA was already providing water to the citizens on subsidized rates as its earnings were Rs4.8 million while its expenditures exceeded Rs13.2m.

To a question, the Nazim told newsmen that a sum of Rs60m had been approved for bringing about improvement in the municipal services in the city while Rs6.7m had also been sanctioned for city sanitation plan. Since the city parks needed to be upgraded and developed, he added, Rs0.55m had also been allocated for the purpose.

He further said that over 400 cabins would be installed alongside various link roads of the city which would be constructed without using a single penny of the TMA. This, he added, would help reduce joblessness in the city.

He went on to say that maximum services and items would be brought under the tax net.

About the income resources of the union councils, the Tehsil Nazim said a tractor trolley with thresher and ploughing blades would be given to all the rural UCs of the Tehsil by next year so that they could spend the earnings from these for the betterment of their constituents.

To the question of poor sanitation in the city, Khan expressed his dissatisfaction over the state of affairs, and said the TMA was contemplating to contract out the sanitation system to private firms.