KARACHI: Mayor Wasim Akhtar has said that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) is facing hardships in preparing budget for the next fiscal year and time has come to minimise the expenditures on non-developmental activities and to utilise the resources in an efficient way.

He expressed these views while presiding over a meeting held to review the proposals for next year’s budget in the committee room of the KMC head office on Wednesday.

Deputy Mayor Syed Arshad Hasan and Metropolitan Commissioner Syed Saif-ur-Rehman were also present in the meeting besides financial adviser Riaz Khatri and the departmental heads.

The mayor said that all departmental heads must pay their electricity bills on time or in case of disconnection the head of the department concerned would be held responsible.

He said that the electricity bill for the Landhi slaughterhouse would be paid by the contractor under an agreement. Separate sub-meters should be installed for each sub-department, he added.

He said the KMC would henceforth not pay the electricity bill for any of its residential facilities and separate electricity meters would be installed for every apartment or residential facility.

The mayor said the financial condition was not good and now “we have to correct things to save unnecessary expenditures and to spend this money on development works in the city”.

He said that 135 projects could not be finished this year owing to non-release of the fourth quarter funds and it had become hard to complete the ongoing schemes.

He said that only most urgent works should be considered and measures be taken to improve the conditions of the KMC hospitals.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2019