FAISALABAD, July 1: Scores of uplift schemes have been in the cold storage for the last six years because the Tehsil Municipal Administration (City) could not execute its plan of auctioning various properties in different parts of the city.

It was learnt that the defunct Faisalabad Municipal Corporation in 1998 had planned to sell its different properties to generate funds for initiating new uplift schemes besides improving civic infrastructure.

The TMA officials had expected to generate Rs172.2 million funds from the sale of municipal properties. But the real estate circles claimed that if these properties were sold out through transparent manner, the TMA could get over Rs300 million.

Insiders claimed that the city fathers were wanted to sell the municipal properties at throwaway prices to their chums. However, the plan could not be materialized due to strong resistance by the citizens.

At present, most of these municipal properties were being used for car parking by the people without paying a single penny to the TMA for the last several years.

The TMA had estimated Rs172.2 million the cost of municipal properties in the financial year of 2003-4 and had declared to sell the same through open auction. The tenders were called but the process was subsequently put in the cold storage on flimsy pretexts.

TMA officials claimed that the task of selling municipal properties could not be met because the provincial government had not constituted any formal property sale committee.

The TMA in its budget for the year 2004-2005 again expected an income of Rs172.2 million through the sale of its properties. A TMA spokesman claimed that during the current fiscal year, the municipal properties would be sold out to highest bidders as a formal committee headed by the District Nazim had been formed.