MIRPURKHAS Aug 19: Repair of roads and drains in Jhuddo town, damaged during last year’s heavy rains, has not yet been completed.

Talking to this correspondent, former councillors Shamshad Ali, Nisar Talpur and Khalid Pervez Arain, said last year’s downpour had severely affected Jhuddo town and destroyed its infrastructure.

Later, they said, the taluka municipal administration allocated Rs2.5 million for lighting and tree plantation but it was opposed by the people and on their complaints, the commissioner of Mirpurkhas cancelled half a dozen unnecessary schemes and called for using the funds for repairing roads and drains.

They said the TMA floated tenders of Rs140 million and contractors completed jobs of Rs100 million but they were paid only Rs70 million. As a result, they stopped work till the payment of the remaining amount.

They said the transition officer of the TMA had gone to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah but before leaving he had issued cheques for Rs5 million to which were dishonoured. They said that there was a dire need of completion of development works before rains.

When contacted, the infrastructure officer of the TMA, Sikandar Kaimkhani said the taluka transition officer had issued orders for more work than available funds. However, he said, some of the contractors were doing the job sincerely.

He said the Sindh government had not released three installments of the share of Octroi Zila Tax to the TMA, adding that the contactors would be given full payment only when the remaining installments were released.