KARACHI: Mayor Wasim Akhtar has said that elected local government representatives wanted to provide relief to the people in the next Karachi Metropolitan Corporation budget by allocating a bigger amount for development expenditures than for non-development ones.

Speaking at a meeting held on Wednesday to review budget for the next fiscal year, he said the Covid-19 pandemic had affected the KMC revenue, adding that it would be impossible to achieve the target owing to circumstances during the last four months.

The mayor said that the situation would remain the same in the upcoming months, which is why they were not expecting any increase in the KMC revenue. “The KMC revenue came to a halt while expenditures of salaries, pensions, retired employees’ dues, medicines at hospitals, animals’ feed at zoos and utility bills continue,” he added.

Civic bodies asked to make rain emergency plans

The mayor said that neither the Sindh government provided special grants to the KMC in the wake of Covid-19 nor did it give any assistance to hospitals under the KMC’s administrative control. He said that the KMC was running all hospitals from its own resources.

Mr Akhtar said that works on several development schemes in Karachi had stopped as the provincial government had provided only Rs625 million under the Annual Development Programme. “The contractors have stopped working as they could not be paid,” he said.

The mayor added that in the next budget, amounts would be allocated for several new schemes as well as for the incomplete projects of the previous budget which could not be completed on time due to shortage of required funds.

He said UC chairmen and head of KMC’s different departments had also suggested schemes, adding that the viable suggested schemes would also be incorporated.

He said the next KMC budget would be limited as the provincial government kept all revenue-generating departments under its control.

The mayor said the budget session of the KMC would be held with all precautionary measures and all members would be bound to follow standard operating procedures.

Rain emergency plans

The city administration has asked civic and utility services to take all precautionary measures to combat any eventuality during the expected monsoon rains.

Official sources said on Thursday that a meeting chaired by Commissioner of Karachi Iftikhar Shallwani reviewed the arrangements being made by the KMC, DMCs, cantonment boards, Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board and other relevant departments in view of upcoming wet season.

They said the commissioner asked the civic agencies to take all precautionary measures and fully equip themselves with the necessary machinery, dewatering pumps, dumpers and skilled and experienced staff.

The meeting also reviewed the work of cleanliness and desilting of storm-water drains being carried out by the KMC, DMCs and cantonment boards.

The commissioner was also briefed by KMC officials on the World Bank Project CLICK and SWEEP for cleaning of drains in the city. He told the meeting that the projects were expected to start desilting and cleaning storm-water drains soon.

The KMC officials informed the meeting that under the programme at least 33 KMC and DMCs’ drains would be cleaned and fixed.

The meeting was also informed that cleanliness would begin in upcoming week and setting up of an office at Jam Chakro for the disposal of garbage lifted from drains was also expected. However, small nullahs would be cleaned by the KMC, DMCs and cantonment boards.

The commissioner directed the KMC, DMCs and cantonment boards and other relevant civic agencies to make all-out efforts to complete the desilting and cleaning of nullahs, which are their responsibilities, before the monsoon starts.

He asked the KMC and other departments to ensure choking points of all nullahs were cleared.

The KMC and other departments also briefed the meeting about the contingency plans prepared by them.

The commissioner asked all departments concerned to ensure that the contingency plans prepared were effectively implemented and the deputy commissioners were asked to help them in carrying out their work to combat the rain emergency situation.

The PDMA was asked to make arrangements for dewatering pumps to be provided to the municipal departments in coordination with the relevant deputy commissioners.

It was also decided that all such points would be addressed where rainwater was stagnant and for its removal dewatering pumps would be installed.

The commissioner asked the KMC and other departments to make special arrangements to ensure that Saadi Town and K-Electric grid stations were not inundated.

The officials of the KMC, DMCs, cantonment boards and SSWMB told the meeting that they were fully prepared to combat the expected monsoon rains and they had prepared their contingency plans in that regard.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2020