KARACHI, Feb 28 Centuries-old Mubarak Village will soon be regularised with the grant of proprietary rights to its residents, Dawn has reliably learnt on Saturday.
Located along the Sindh-Balochistan coastal border in the administrative jurisdiction of Keamari Town, the village has been inhabited by the fishing community long before partition. However, the locality is still without basic amenities due to years of neglect.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah is likely to award ownership rights to the villagers at a ceremony in the first week of March. It has been further learnt that the revenue department has re-demarcated the land and prepared a layout for the village under the Goth Abad Scheme.
The village, which was spread over 60 acres, has been extended over 103 acres to accommodate maximum residential and amenity plots, according to the new layout.
“It is an honour for us that the chief minister will visit our village and distribute ownership right documents among fishermen,” said Mohammad Haroon, an elder of the area.
During the chief minister`s visit, the fishermen would raise demands for the provision of basic facilities as well as for the construction of a fishing jetty in the village, he said. The government had planned to construct a fishing jetty along the shore a year ago, he said, adding that the plan still remained unimplemented.
Some villagers regretted that the area was without electricity and clean drinking water facilities despite the fact that it was near the Hub Dam and the Hubco power plant.
The Sindh government had planned to arrange for electric supply to the village some time ago for which a huge amount had been allocated under the annual development programme, they said. But the planning and development department of the Karachi Electric Supply Company did not provide the project`s estimated cost, they said, adding that no work on the project had been carried out since then.
The area people urged the government to ask KESC officials to release the estimate of the project`s cost to the department concerned so that work could be initiated.
As far as the education and health facilities are concerned, the villagers said a girls` primary school was established a decade ago and a rural health centre was set up a few years back. At present, the girls` school was without a female teacher and the health centre lacked regular staff and medicines, they regretted.