HYDERABAD, March 31: The District Council, Hyderabad, on Monday called upon the Planning and Development Department of the Sindh government to ensure that all rules and regulations regarding construction of multi-storey buildings are implemented.

The council adopted a resolution of Mohammad Yousuf Qureshi, calling upon the department concerned to ensure the lease of multi-storey buildings as per their real value and the builders be bound to submit a security deposit.

The resolution said that the amount of the security should be returned unless the director, Building Control, himself inspected the site and issued a certificate that the builder had complied with the directives of the building plan and material specified.

Mr Qureshi pointed out that normally the builders used substandard material in the construction whereas possession of flats was not handed over to the owners.

He said that the builders got the property leased at throwaway prices whereas a big amount was obtained from the owners of shops and flats, causing monetary loss to the government.

He said that the officials of the department concerned always worked in collusion with the builders to convert reserved space for mosques, parks and parking lots after approval of the plan whereas the department did not take any action in this context.

The session referred to the resolution of Babu Mohammad Ramzan Arain to the Sindh government, seeking details of all those contracts which were given without approval.

The resolution said that all these contracts should be presented before the session with an explanation as to why it was by-passed.

Mr Arain said that as per the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO), the session had apparently failed to fulfil the formality of holding of 50 sessions of the District Council within a year as the district government did not refer government business to it.

He said that the SLGO makes its mandatory that any contract of more than Rs1 million had to be approved by the session and a report should be submitted about all those contracts given last year.

He said that the district government had violated this provision as not a single contract was submitted before the session.

The session also approved another resolution of Mr Arain regarding establishment of centres for wheat procurement and an inquiry in the delay of setting up of such centres.

He said that the wheat harvesting season had already begun.

Quoting the growers, he said that due to the recent rains an increase was expected in the production of wheat, and that the food department had not made any arrangements like the previous years.

He said that taking advantage of this slackness, the traders were purchasing wheat at will.

He said that now 10 kgms of flour was being sold between Rs110 and Rs112, putting the poor in financial trouble.

Mr Arain demanded setting up of wheat procurement centres.