HYDERABAD, Feb 27: Calling upon the district government to evaluate losses caused by last week’s torrential rains in the district, members of the Hyderabad District Council here on Thursday criticized Sindh minister for local bodies for targeting the union council representatives for no fault of their.

They demanded recovery of different taxes should be suspended forthwith.

Proceedings of the session had to be adjourned on two occasions following two token walkouts by some members.

Firstly, it was labour councillor Rana Mehmood Ali Khan, who urged the reserved seats members to lodge their protest as no funds were allocated for them despite repeated assurances by the district government.

The minority, women and labour councillors left the house and returned after some time.

Then Ibrahim Chishti and Muhammad Yousuf Qureshi led another brief walk out, protesting against indifferent attitude of some government officials, including EDO, revenue, MD, Wasa, and DG, HDA, who had failed to turn up at the session.

The session resumed a debate on two resolutions on rain- related devastation, tabled by Mohammad Yousuf Qureshi and Rana Mehmood Ali Khan.

Both the resolutions were adopted unanimously after the debate.

Lala Zahid Pathan initiated the debate saying lists of losses cause by the rains been prepared by the officials but no body knew what happened to the lists.

He called for a package for the district.

Mir Mansoor Talpur, Wahida Feroze and Badar-un-Nisa Qazi said rural areas of the district were neglected in assessment of rain- related losses and criticized the district government officials for failing to visit their areas.

Dr Ayaz Arain criticized officials of the Hyderabad Development Authority and Water and Sanitation Agency for doing nothing to resolve the rain-related problems.

Calling for disaster management planning ahead of rains, Abdul Qadir Qazi said people should be compensated for their losses.

He said each UC should be provided two pumping machines.

Ehsan Mamoon, Humayun Naseer, Qayyum Sheikh and Umer Gaddi demanded allocation of Rs500,000 for each UC to meet an emergency.

Raza Shah came hard on Sindh Minister for Local Bodies, Mohammad Hussain, for targeting the UC representatives, and said the minister was scoring political points that did not suit him.

Jiyando Soomro alleged that the local government system was being sabotaged.

Demanding grant of Rs1 billion for the city, Mr Qureshi proposed international bodies should be consulted for executing development schemes.

Summing up the debate, Mr Khan held the council members responsible for the mess, saying the circumstances were a result of the budget passed by the council without a debate.

He said no allocations were made for emergency situation in the budget.

He said water turbines given by the Asian Development Bank were lying defective, which were capable of disposing of a huge quantity of water in one hour, which could not be disposed of by normal pumping stations in one day.

The convener appointed a three-member committee, comprising Mr Qureshi, Mr Khan and Mr Shah, to meet the district Nazim and seek details of rain-related losses and to discuss ways and means to provide relief to rain-affected people.

On Wednesday the district council on Wednesday, through a resolution adopted unanimously, called upon the Sindh government to relocate rangers from the Muslim Hostel and use the vacated building either as a hospital or an educational institution.

The resolution to this effect was tabled by the labour councillor, Rana Mehmood Ali Khan.

Other members informed the district council that the Latifabad Board Stadium and the Polytechnic College had also been occupied by rangers, and called for getting these buildings vacated.

Mr Khan, while criticizing the rangers for occupying the hostel, said that not only were they (rangers) staying there but they were using a portion of the building for commercial purposes and had opened a hotel and a public call office.