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City govt unveils Rs52.5 billion budget for 2009-10
Karachi
The City District Government Karachi’s (CDGK) budget for the year 2009-10 was presented on Friday in the City Council by City Nazim Mustafa Kamal. The budget has an outlay of Rs52.531 billion against the estimated expenditure of Rs52.360 billion, showing a surplus of Rs170.36 million.
The budget was approved unanimously by the Council via a resolution.
A sum of Rs26,818.38 million has been earmarked for development works and Rs25,542.51 million for non-development expenditure.
A major amount of Rs11.3 billion has been earmarked for Works and Services and another Rs10.1 billion for education projects and Rs3.9 billion for the health sector. The other major allocations include Rs1.5 billion for transport and communication, Rs2.8 billion for the annual development programme and RS.2.9 billion for municipal services.
The city government has also made allocations for more than 60 projects including Rs2,000 million for development and improvement of basic infrastructure, Rs1,500 million for the privatisation of the solid waste management system, Rs939.17 million for the Tameer-e-Karachi Programme, Rs550 million for the Citizen Community Board (CDGK Share), Rs500 million for the purchase of CNG Buses, Rs500 million for the construction of parking plazas, Rs500 million for the Karachi Mass Transit System, Rs400 million for development work of Signal-Free Corridor (SFC)-4 (Shahrea Faisal), Rs451.24 million for development work in 178 Union Councils (UC), Rs370 million for the Wireless Video and Surveillance System Phase-II, Rs350 million for the Elevated Expressway, Rs250 million for SFC-III, Rs250 million for the construction of pedestrian bridges, Rs250 million for the improvement and maintenance of roads, footpaths, culverts, roundabouts and intersections, Rs250 million for the Karachi Medical and Dental College (KMDC), Rs220 million for SFC-II, Rs200 million for the development and improvement of inter-city roads and intersections as well as those in towns and UCs, Rs160 million for the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD), Rs130 million for the construction of Awan-e-Rifat (Art Gallery), Rs130 million for construction of Orangi and Landhi Industrial Areas and Rs100 million for the purchase of Mechanical Sweeping Machines.
Other heads included development work at industrial areas (Rs100 million), the construction of a fish aquarium at Clifton (Rs100 million), the provision of electricity on major CDGK roads (Rs100 million), the development and improvement of various CDGK parks (Rs100 million), the road-marking and traffic sign scheme (Rs100 million), bulk transportation and destruction of garbage, including development work (Rs80 million), the construction of the Gutter Baghicha Park (Rs80 million), the Citizen Complaint and Information System (Rs80 million), cleaning and desilting of storm water drains (Rs60 million), the construction and development of strom Water drains (Rs60 million), urban search and rescue (Rs60 million), development of inter-town roads in the CDGK’s jurisdiction (Rs50 million), the purchase of fire tenders for the Korangi and SITE industrial areas (Rs100 million), the purchase of generators for hospitals (Rs50 million), the conversion of the women’s library into a hospital in Gulshan-e-Iqbal (Rs40 million), the construction of Kite Park (Rs40 million), the improvement of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital with a nursing school and the installation of lifts (Rs40 million), the construction of a subway at Rafah-e-Aam Society (Rs40 million), the development of Safari Park (Rs32.50 million), construction and development of Adam Khan Road (Rs30 million), construction and development of Madina Colony Road (Rs30 million), construction and lighting at Khalid Bin Waleed Road (Rs30 million), construction and improvement of “U-Turns” (Rs30 million), the construction of an intercity bus terminus (Rs30 million), the establishment of the City Diagnostic Centre (Rs30 million), plantation at major roads and roundabouts (Rs24.50 million).
A sum of Rs20 million has been allocated for the annual improvement of flyovers and bridges, development work in Malir Town, the construction of Jheel Park, construction and development of a service road on Shaheed-e-Millat Road, a Health Management Information System for the KIHD and for the construction of approach roads for Hill Park. —QT
The News: Saturday, June 27, 2009
Unified command imperative for Karachi: Kamal
By Qadeer Tanoli
Karachi
Unity of command in Karachi is imperative for the stability of the country and progress of the city; municipal boundaries must be eliminated, City Nazim Mustafa Kamal said on Friday while addressing the budget meeting of the City Council. The session was presided over by Convener Nasreen Jalil.
“The city police and the traffic police should be kept under the control of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK),” Kamal said, adding that all stakeholders in Karachi, especially the City Council, should adopt a combined stance on these matters. “We are now few months away from the end of our tenure. People should not think that we are asking for more powers for us but it is essential for the progress of the nation and the country that the city government should get these powers,” he said.
Kamal went on to mention in detail all major projects of his four-year tenure along with future undertakings during an hour-long speech.
The city Nazim said that the way President Asif Ali Zardari was taking interest in the development activities in Karachi it looked like the process of development in the city would continue without any break.
He said that work on the Karachi Greater Sewerage Treatment Plant (S-III) would begin in the next two to three months at a cost of Rs9 billion. He said that a major amount of over Rs2 billion had been earmarked for the construction of six flyovers at Sharea Faisal (Corridor-IV), and that, billons of rupees had been set aside in the budget for infrastructure development.
Kamal said that the city government would establish vocational training centres in four towns of Karachi during the next fiscal year.
The city nazim also asked members of the City Council to fill the form of the Karachi Development Trust Fund.
In the end he thanked all members of the City Council for all the achievements of the city government during the last four years.
The News: Saturday, June 27, 2009
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A knowing smile meets clasped hands
By Ahmed Yusuf
Karachi
Let’s face it, the City Council session on Friday was all about City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal (SMK) and by extension, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). While the SMK show was riveting, it was indeed the members of the Council whose gestures and mannerisms said much about political dealings between the various parties of the provincial coalition.
The most revealing image of the session was when SMK promised the creation of a park in Lyari within a time frame of two months. City Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil looked towards Acting Leader of the Opposition Jumman Darwan with a knowing smile, and he responded by putting his hands together to thank her. Both the MQM and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had their way.
Yet, the city’s politics were not on top of the agenda at the session. In fact, SMK kept the dynamics and mechanisms of the city’s politics at bay — no mention of who the land mafia are or how to counter them, no mention of the insecure law-and-order situation; the electricity and water crises only got a passing mention without really getting into the details and political explanations of the apathetic performances of these utilities. All this is understandable — after all, the session was about the city government’s achievements and its plans.
SMK, however, is quite an orator, ensuring that the opposition had to sit through what seemed like an MQM congregation. If the last budget speech was about successful plans instituted by the city government, the earlier half of SMK’s emotive speech was about ensuring that the councillors acknowledged the benefits of these uplift projects.
In the latter half, SMK quite neatly appropriated the pro-poor agenda of the PPP, linking all of his city government’s achievements with the betterment of the commonfolk. The only thing left was the PPP’s slogan of ‘Roti, Kapra aur Makaan’ (food, clothing and shelter), but even that was somewhat covered with the announcement of cricket teams at the town and city levels, with players being supported by the city government. For all practical purposes, the MQM further narrowed the policy differences between the PPP and itself.
Regardless, there remain further avenues for improvement. While the rhetoric of mega-city has become part of the Karachi consciousness, the fascination with developing infrastructure may become a parochial approach in the future, if it is not backed with commensurate measures in the social sector. For instance, expenditure on health last year was Rs3,556.78 million, whereas it was increased to Rs3,983.87 million this year — an increase of about 12 per cent. Similar is the case with increases under the heads of education and literacy. For all of the mega-city rhetoric, demographic changes as well as urban spaces and social formations which evade the naked eye will need to be analysed by the government in detail, for political and electoral dynamics are bound to change in the near future, not simply in the city but also in the province.
The News: Saturday, June 27, 2009
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