FAISALABAD, Sept 16: The decision of local administration to set up offices for the four towns councils in the heart of the city will have a nasty effect on the people residing in far-flung villages. The offices for the Lyallpur, Iqbal and Madina towns have been set up in the TMA Complex near the railway station while the offices of Jinnah town have been set up in the rest house of the defunct district (zila) council a couple of kilometres from the TMA Complex.
The offices for the city district nazim and his staff are being set up in the building of district council which lacked required infrastructure for smooth working of the city district government.
Except the office of former nazim, none of the rooms are up to the mark. Moreover, the hall of this building is not spacious enough to accommodate 412 members.
It may be remembered that President Gen Pervez Musharraf had introduced the local government system with lofty claims of devolution of powers at the grassroots level and provision of services to the public at their doorstep. However, his dream is yet to be realized even after four years of the working of the system.
In the original plan launched in 2001, Faisalabad city and its adjoining rural areas have been divided into two tehsils — City and Saddar. The areas falling under the Saddar tehsil remained neglected and villagers of these areas have no access to the proposed offices due to their odd location for them. This year, Faisalabad has been declared as city district while Saddar tehsil has been divided into four towns — Jinnah, Lyallpur, Madina and Iqbal.
Of 28 union councils of Lyallpur town, 16 rural area UCs have a population of 310,617. Eight of 41 union councils in Madina town have a population of 164,207. Of 43 union councils of Iqbal town, 15 have a rural population of 268,297. Of 29 union councils of Jinnah town, nine rural UCs have a population of 180,989.
Over one million rural population now has been included in the towns whose offices have been set up in the interior city areas due to which the people of these villages would have to face difficulties for their petty tasks.
The demarcation of the towns has been made in the light of historical status of the city as areas around the Clock Tower have been shared by different towns.