MANSEHRA, April 16: A joint meeting of four union councils and representatives of traders and hoteliers associations of Mansehra town has decided to stop payment of taxes to the Tehsil Municipal administration in case the civic problems facing the public were not solved.

The meeting held on Wednesday decided that as the civic problems of Mansehra town continued to persist despite payment of huge taxes by the business community and the general public, they would stop paying taxes to the TMA.

District coordination officer Hassanzada Khan, officiating district Nazim Jehangir Nasim Khan, union Nazims and a large number of councillors were also present in the meeting.

The union Nazims accused Mansehra tehsil Nazim Mohammad Farooq Khan of misappropriation in award of contracts for development works. They alleged that the tehsil Nazim was responsible for all the mismanagement in the TMA.

They also criticized the apathy of TMA officials towards the people’s difficulties, saying the residents faced acute water shortage and the officials deliberately created faults in the water supply machines to mint money in the name of repair.

They said it was an irony that despite provision of Rs 2 million by the district government, the TMA did not start work on construction of three tube wells in the town.

They said that due to mismanagement in the TMA and misuse of public money, the sanitation conditions in the town were deteriorating and heaps of garbage were lying on the roads and streets. They said that despite provision of funds, the TMA has badly failed in acquiring land for garbage dump.

The roads and streets in the town are in dilapidated condition, but the tehsil Nazim granted Rs10 million for construction of a road in his own union council, they alleged.

Councillors Ajmal Khan and Syed Munazzar Shah and traders’ representative Sabir Hussain besides women councillors Saeeda Begum and Sadia Tanvir also raised a number of issues concerning the civic problems of the town.

They said that the income of the TMA was generated from three union councils of the town and the union council Mansehra rural but it was being spent on all the 35 union councils of Mansehra tehsil which was a major cause of mismanagement in the TMA.

They said that sodium lamps were provided for the purpose of street lighting in the town at a cost of Rs0.8 million but were of no benefit to the residents as the TMA could not pay huge bill to the Peshawar Electricity Supply Company.

A number of demands were made through unanimous resolutions adopted at the meeting. It was demanded of the provincial government to order a probe into the TMA affairs.

The meeting demanded handing over of all the civic affairs related to the town to the three union councils of Mansehra city.