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DHA seeks residents’ cooperation
Karachi
Regarding the recent levying of its
refurbishment charges on home and property owners, the Defence
Housing Authority (DHA) has said that it is seeking the cooperation
of residents in its hour of need.
“Most DHA residents belong to an
affluent segment of society and are in a position to pay the new
charges in four easy installments. DHA expects that the residents
will demonstrate goodwill and accept the new move with a positive
spirit for the overall betterment and prosperity of the area,” said
the DHA spokesman in a statement on Friday.
The statement reiterates the DHA
position that Defence residents’ associations were informed about
the refurbishment charges before its imposition. The residents’
associations, despite the number of meetings since then, have never
opposed these charges, it added.
The statement said that recently, the
DHA has levied a one-time refurbishment charge on open and
constructed plots purportedly because of a financial impasse it
faces – the Authority spent three to four billion rupees on
refurbishment and renovation of the depleting civic infrastructure
of the developed phases of DHA.
This has been done solely to maintain
the infrastructural efficacy of Defence. The charges also include a
cost of Rs2.7 billion incurred on laying of a modern drainage system
in DHA on war footings to obviate chances of any flooding in the
area during the monsoons.
The statement added that after
spending a huge sum of money to rescue the prestigious housing
enterprise from becoming a slum, the DHA finds itself in a difficult
financial position. The statement clarified that in order to
overcome the financial crunch, the governing body of DHA has very
reluctantly approved the imposition of refurbishment charges.
The statement said that DHA, being a
development agency, does not receive any kind of taxes from its
residents unlike the CBC which is a municipal organisation. The DHA
on the contrary spends money out of its own exchequer to maintain
good civic infrastructure and an exclusive living environment in the
locality. The statement asserts that the DHA neither gets
grant-in-aid from the government or any other agency whatsoever.
The criticism of laying drains in the
middle of the roads is uncalled for as owing to various civic
services along both sides of the roads, there was no other practical
engineering solution except to make drains in the centre of the
roads, the statement said. It added that the slopes of the roads
will, however, allow the rain water to flow down the drains with
gravitational force.
The News: Saturday, June 13, 2009
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