KARACHI, Aug 6: The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Local Government & Rural Development has expressed its concern over the aggravating civic problems in Karachi , and underlined the need to further strengthen the devolution system so that problems being faced by common men could be resolved.

The committee, in a meeting presided over by its Chairman Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani here on Friday, observed that poor civic infrastructure and lack of coordination between different government functionaries had made lives of Karachiites miserable.

Members of the committee MNAs Ms Shahzadi Umerzadi Tiwana, Syed Javed Ali Shah, Chaudhry Nazeer A. Jatt, Maulana Mirajuddin, Khurram Munawwar Manj, and Ms Fauzia Wahab; Naib City Nazim Tariq Hasan and DCO Mir Hussain Ali and other government officials attended the meeting. City Nazim Naimatullah Khan joined the meeting later, after his return from Japan.

The participants particularly focussed on water and sewerage problem in the city and took notice of water supply from hydrants through tanker service under the control of Rangers.

DCO Mir Hussain Ali assured the meeting that five of the hydrants operating in the city would be closed by the end of September. He said that the city nazim had already ordered shifting of three hydrants, two in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and one at Sakhi Hassan, to somewhere outside the city's limits.

Ms Fauzia Wahab pointed out that water and sewerage lines in the old city areas had lived their life but could not be replaced due to non-availability of any data or survey. She stressed the need for a centralized sewerage system and streamlining it in various parts of city managed by different stakeholders.

The meeting took serious notice of lack of solid-waste management system in Karachi which was not only polluting the environment but appeared to be a major cause of choking of sewerage and drainage lines due to the much of unattended garbage finding its way into the sewerage conduits.

It observed that polythene shopping bags were also a major cause of choked pipelines, and directed the CDGK to impose a ban on all kinds of polythene bags immediately. Construction of roads and flyovers also came under discussion and the meeting took strong notice of the fact that CDGK was undertaking the mega projects costing billions of rupees without having acquired an independent quality checking laboratory.

On the absence of a Master Plan for Karachi, the Committee's Chairman, Maulana Haqqani, said that random and unplanned expansion of city could be checked only by having a proper Master Plan.

Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan said special allocations had been made in all budgets of the CDGK for development work in all union councils. Every UC nazim had been given Rs6.4 million from the current year's budget whereas payments relating to previous budgets had also been made.

Additional Chief Secretary (LG) told the meeting that under the SLGO-2001, UCs had not been given any role in development work as the task had been assigned to the towns. "Local government institutions are still receiving payments pertaining to octroi, which was abolished by the then government a few years back," he added.

The committee also discussed the issue of Public Safety Commission and Complaint Authority at length and was informed by the concerned authorities that the whole process was being reviewed in the light of the proposed amendments to the Police Order 2002 by the NRB.

The committee issued directives regarding arrangements for the independent external audit of CDGK accounts with regard to the funds utilization, especially those relating to UCs, in the projects already completed or under completion.

The committee members expressed their dissatisfaction the performance of KESC and noted sufferings of people due to the related problems. They hoped that people might get substantial relief after privatization of the corporation.

The NA's Standing Committee took serious note of the absence of NRB representative from the meeting. Later, talking to the committee members in his office, City Nazim Naimatullah Khan said that the major hurdle in development work was existence of different agencies owning lands in city. "An integrated system could not be developed due to the differences with the stakeholders on various issues of the past," he added. -PPI