KARACHI, Nov 19: Teaching activities at the 10 new colleges, established by the city government have failed to start owing to an objection raised by its Department of Finance and Planning regarding the release of Rs11.6 million to the local education department for purchasing furniture and recruitment of staff, officials said on Friday.

The City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, had approved Rs11.6 million from his discretionary funds for recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff, furniture, lab equipment, stationary and other pre-requisites so that teaching could be started at the new colleges.

However, the city government's Finance and Planning Department refused to provide funds to its education department, despite the fact that the city nazim personally spoke to the EDO Finance and Planning, Shakeel Naqvi, for releasing the funds on an urgent basis.

According to the Adviser to City Nazim on Education, Naseem Siddiqui, the audit section of Finance and Planning Department refused to release the funds on arguments that the special and discretionary funds of the city nazim could only be utilized for development purposes.

Regretting the delay in starting of the teaching process at the recently established colleges, he said red tape was the cause of delay in commencement of teaching activities, although the city nazim and other concerned officials had tried their level best to expedite the process of provision of funds for these institutions.

"When the situation came to the notice of the city nazim, he ordered immediate release of funds, without any objections, to prevent the academic loss of students, who have only 3-4 months left until their annual exams," he added.

According to him, furniture at five of the 10 newly established colleges were provided today (Nov 19) while necessary furniture to the remaining colleges would be provided on November 20. "It is hoped that the teaching process at the colleges will kick-off from November 22," he said.

"As far as the teaching and non-teaching staff is concerned, orders were issued today to send lecturers from other colleges to these 10 newly established colleges on detailment," he informed.

Regarding the provision of power, water, stationary, scientific equipment and other necessities, he said their arrangement would be made after the release of funds, for which the city nazim was personally in touch with the Finance and Planning Department officials.

It is worth mentioning that the Centralized Admission Policy Committee had granted admissions to students at the new institutions ignoring the fact that there were no teachers to and furniture.

The newly-established colleges include Govt Degree Boys College Landhi-Quaid Abad, Govt Degree Boys College Korangi No 21/2, Govt Boys Degree College Baldia Town, Govt Degree Girls College Landhi No 31/2, Govt Degree Girls College Quaid-e-Millat, Govt Degree Girls College Landhi Mill Area, Govt Degree Girls College Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Govt Degree Girls College SITE, Govt Degree Girls College Orangi Town 7C, Govt Degree Boys College Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Govt Degree Girls College Metroville. - PPI