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City Nazim is totally ignoring suburbs, claims Darwan

By Shahid Husain

Karachi

The Deputy Parliamentary Leader of Awam Dost group in City District Council, Jumman Darwan, has said that the Karachi City Nazim Mustafa Kamal is totally ignoring the suburban areas of the city and has not spent a single penny for the development of rural Karachi.

In an exclusive interview with The News, he said that before becoming a part of the present system, their development budget was of Rs 3.5 billion and every union council in suburban areas generated more than 20 million rupees in octroi.

“You will be surprised that union council Darsano Channa generated Rs1.5 billion while every union council would get a funding of 60 to 70 millions from the district council,” he said.

He claimed they had sufficient development funds when Naimatullah Khan, the former city nazim held the office but, now they are deprived of funds by ruling government. He said this is total injustice to the original inhabitants of Karachi who spread from Mai Kolachi onwards and have played a vital role in the making of this mega city.

“The basis of present system is ethnicity. We believe that Karachi is mini-Pakistan but the present city nazim has totally ignored areas such as Union Council-13 Baloch Goth (Orangi Town), Gadap, Keamari, Mauripur, Mawach Goth, Bin Qasim, Gulshan-e-Hadeed and Ebrahim Haidery as if these areas are not a part of the city,” he added.

He pointed out that the Sindh government approved Rs 6 billion for the construction of Manghopir Road that would stretch from Banaras Chowk to Madinat-ul-Hikmat in Hub area of Balochistan, but let alone the construction even tenders have not been invited for the construction of this inter-provincial road as yet.

“Budget is allocated for this road every year but the plan never materialises. The City Nazim has just no interest in the development of rural areas of Karachi,” He said bitterly.

According to him, Rs248.83 million were allocated for the construction of Manghopir Road in accordance with a letter dated June 24, 2006 but it never happened. He urged Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, President Asif Ali Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to restore the previous District Council Karachi. He also demanded to carve a separate district for the city comprising suburbs so that problems faced by inhabitants of these areas could be solved.

“The CDGK has not only failed to carry out any development activity in suburbs of Karachi but is now eyeing the green belt of the city that is essential agricultural land and provides fruit and vegetables to the city,” he said.

Referring to specific problems faced by residents of Union Council-13 Baloch Goth, Orangi Town, he said PC-1s were sent to city nazim three times by UC-13 for construction and cleansing of natural nullahs but were always rejected.

He claimed a sum of Rs 60 million was approved for the construction of these natural nullahs but instead the money was spent on parts of Orangi Town where Haq Parast group has a vote bank. According to him whatever development work took place in UC-13 and US-2 where Awam Dost group holds sway was during the era of Naimatullah Khan.

He said that the former city nazim had allocated Rs10 million for their union council for construction of a single shift school, Rs3.5 million for electrification and Rs3.5 million for laying sewerage lines. ‘‘He also approved Rs2.5 million for water supply which is available today in every house,” he said.

“Our accounts were seized when Haq Parast group came to power and development work suffered as payments could not be made to contractors on time,” he regretted.