ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior on Thursday directed the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) to disconnect 24 unauthorised water connections to farmhouses.

The committee, which met at Parliament House with MNA Raja Khurram Nawaz in the chair, was briefed by Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz about the shortage of water in I-10.

The mayor said supply of water was affected due to loadshedding, outages, electric and mechanical faults at tubewells and leakages in the supply lines.

However, he said, the faulty tubewells would be rectified within a week.

The members said farmhouses had been provided connections from the drinking water supply lines. To this, the mayor said the connections had been functional for years and the MCI inherited them when it was formed in 2016.

The committee recommended that the 24 connections provided to farmhouses may be disconnected immediately.

The mayor also told the committee that sanitation services were not provided in rural areas before establishment of the MCI and it was under the control of the capital administration.

He said the MCI’s sanitation directorate started providing the services partially in rural areas last year. He said the performance of the MCI was badly affected due to legal and financial issues faced by it.

The committee noted with concern that the residents were suffering due to differences between MCI and CDA, and directed the Ministry of Interior to resolve the disputes between the two.

The committee agreed with the spirit of “Capital Territory Food Safety Bill 2019” for setting up a food authority but postponed it to the next meeting, when the interior ministry would come up with the required information.

Meanwhile, the committee discussed “The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2019” and recommended that the bill may be passed by the assembly.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2019