HYDERABAD, Aug 7: The district council in its Saturday's session again urged the Sindh government to hand over control of the Hyderabad Development Authority and Water and Sanitation Agency to the district government , alleging that the bodies had been infested with corruption.

In the wake of Friday's rain, performance of two civic bodies was again criticised in the council session which was presided over by convener Nawab Rashid Ali Khan. The session observed that rain had exposed fragile infrastructure of Wasa.

The members said that billions of rupees had been buried in the city in the name of sewerage and water supply lines by the HDA and Wasa over the years but people had continued to face miseries due to problems related to sewerage and water supply.

The members were of the view that the water contamination issue was largely due to incompetence of the Wasa officials.

They deplored that despite directive of the district nazim, the DCO who was also acting director-general of the HDA, and officials of Wasa, excepting its managing director, had not turned up in the session.

Beginning the debate, Q. Hakim called for appointing a commission to ascertain as to why people were so fed up with Wasa. "There are serious issues involving Wasa and the HDA that need government's attention," he insisted.

He said that the HDA was being taken care of by dual administrations by the district and provincial governments and suggested that project cost of the governor's package of Rs500 million should be revised.

Rana Mehmood Ali Khan said that lack of sincerity of purpose was main cause of the crisis and referred to some former honest officers of Wasa and the HDA. "Bills of consumers are not entered in ledgers and settled after bribery," he said.

He questioned as to where grants of billions of rupees had been utilized by Wasa and said that Rs50 million kickback had been given to contractors on the pretext of liabilities.