KARACHI, Jan 1: All the three development authorities of the city — KDA, LDA and MDA — came under the administrative control of the city government on Tuesday in the wake of Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 2001.
The administrative control of the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) as envisaged under the government’s devolution plan was also transferred to the city government on the same day.
With the transfer of administrative control of all these organizations to the city government, the affairs of the metropolis with regard to development activities would now be managed by the city government and 18 town administrations.
Confirming that the KDA, LDA, MDA and the KBCA have come under the administrative control of the city government from Jan 1, the City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, told Dawn that all the employees of these organisations would continue to discharge their duties at their existing offices till their transfer and posting at the offices of the city government.
Asked if the merger of all the offices of the KDA, MDA, LDA and the KBCA and the posting of their officials under the new setup would be completed by June 30 (the last date fixed for transitory period), the Nazim said it would be done much before June 30.
Although all these organizations ceased to function as body corporate following implementation of the SLGO-2001 from Aug 14, the heads of the organizations were first asked to complete the task of their amalgamation with the city government by Dec 31, 2001 and later on till June 30, 2002.
Though the KDA became part of the city government on Tuesday, a number of officials belonging to its land and engineering departments have already been working under the supervision of the city’s 18 town committees.
HISTORY: Tracing the history of KDA, the sources said it was established in 1957 under the President’s Order No 5 of 1957 and was successor to the Karachi Improvement Trust which was set up in 1950. Its first chairman was Col. Nasiruddin Humayun and when it has been merged with the city government, its director-general is Brig Zaheer Quadri.
The KDA Order 1957 was a broad-based legal framework which, among other things, had provided preparation of master plan, its implementation, monitoring and coordination; preparation, development and implementation of housing schemes, rebuilding schemes, etc; undertaking of capital projects relating to water supply, sewerage, drainage, roads and bridges and exercising the functions of building control authority with the Karachi division.
However, all water-related projects which the KDA had completed were transferred to KWSB and similarly all those housing schemes, including roads and parks which the KDA had built were transferred to the KMC mainly for their maintenance.
TRIFURCATED: It was in 1993 that the KDA was trifurcated by creating two more development authorities out of it i.e. Lyari Development Authority and Malir Development Authority and as a result of which not only mass land-stock but even a number of notified on-going schemes, including Shah Latif Town (KDA Scheme No 25/A), Hawkesbay Scheme (KDA Scheme No-42), Taiser Town (KDA Scheme No 45) and Halkani Town (KDA Scheme No 43), having a total of 1,79,239 plots, were transferred to the MDA and LDA.
With the promulgation of SLGO, 2001, all these functions are being transferred in phases to the city government.
Following the transfer of these four on-going schemes to the MDA and the LDA, the KDA was straddled with the pay of above Rs 3.000 million per month to the employees of the schemes which were transferred to the LDA and MDA.
Besides, the four development schemes taken over by the LDA and MDA from KDA are not only in limbo but have created potential for massive cross-litigation and public dissatisfaction.
With the creation of MDA and the LDA, the KDA with its limited receipts was hardly able to pay salaries to its about 5,900 employees and contingency expenses of the authority, apart from partial payment of outstanding liabilities which stood at Rs 283.254 million till January, 2000.
At a time when it has been amalgamated with the city government, its current fiscal year budget amounts to Rs 1,605 million.
The KDA had incurred a huge expenditure of Rs 2028.207 million out of its own resources to carry the important works in behalf of the federal and the Sindh governments but the amount was still stuck up with both the governments.
In addition to this, its Rs 66.286m is frozen by the government treasury; Rs38m has allegedly been taken away by income tax department; Rs 264.301m is receivable from deputy commissioner (Malir) on account of works executed in Scheme-33; Rs 6.873m is receivable from police department through deputy commissioner (West); Rs 11.003m is due against KWSB; Rs 24.465m is outstanding against KESC; Rs 62.946m is due against MDA; Rs 2,308m is receivable from builders and developers; Rs 595.19m is outstanding against various allottees and Rs 10.244m is due from NHA/federal government on account of low-cost housing scheme of Junejo Town.
The other features of the KDA include its non-development expenditures which come to Rs 669.638m (including salary amount).
It has land control of five per cent area of Karachi division which is almost developed or disposed of and today it has no land for launching new housing schemes and as far as plots available with it are concerned for auction, these are very few.
The KDA which was once an effective public service-oriented organization, having the credit of providing 70 per cent of the planned housing stock and more than 70 pc infrastructure i.e. water supply, road network, sewerage system and bridges, had become an unsustainable organization having 5,919 employees whose salary bill comes to Rs 538.596 million per annum.
About 15,000 officials of the KDA, LDA, MDA and KBCA, who will be discharging their duties under the new setup of local government were, however, seen perturbed on their last working day on Tuesday as they apprehend that their seniority might be put at stake following the administrative control of their departments under the city government.