HYDERABAD, March 16: The members of the district council on Thursday expressed concern over construction of highrise buildings in the city without any check and balance by the Building Control Department (BCD) of the Hyderabad Development Authority, saying it was leading to vertical growth of population in Hyderabad which was creating numerous problems, including sewerage network collapse, water shortage and traffic congestion.

The matter was discussed in the house after Javed Kardar tabled an out of turn resolution with the permission of convenor Zafar Ali Rajput. Mr Kardar said illegal construction of plazas under the nose of the BCD had destroyed beauty of the city and its cultural heritage for which the city was known.

"Many highrise buildings emerge on places where one family lived in the past and it obviously is leading to serious issues pertaining to civic amenities.

Ashraf Munna, Mohammad Aslam and Hussain Bux Hussaini said plazas were being built on 30 to 40 feet wide roads without caring about availability of parking spaces and it had contributed largely to destruction of sewerage system, adding that if such construction were needed to be demolished, it should be done without any loss of time.

They said Hyderabad which was known as the city of ventilators had been ruined over the years as even amenity plots had been commercialised.

Munawwar Khanzai, who is also chairman of the district government's works and service committee, supported contentions of the members, saying even the district nazim's directives were not complied with by the BCD officials and action was not taken by them when certain anomalies were pointed out by the committee.

He said the BCD official were either inefficient or had vested interests that was why they avoided taking action against those violating building laws.

He said that certain building had not been demolished despite directives by the committee which had affected its credibility as around 60 such orders were pending with the BCD.

Yamin Soomro said around 10 housing schemes had been launched in his union council but he was not consulted, adding at least concerned UC nazim should be consulted before approval of any building plans in his area.

Sajid Baloch backed Rana Siddiq's proposal that the resolution should be referred to a committee recently formed to look into the issues of housing schemes and land grabbing and survey of every union council should be conducted by the settlement survey department.

The convener referred the matter to the committee, which is headed by him. He said amenity plots were converted into commercial plazas in collusion with the BCD officials.

He said the district nazim's vision was clear in this regard that by-laws should be adhered in construction of plazas. He said he himself had noted during visit of plazas that parking space had been sold.

Mr Rajput referred a resolution of Nasima Khan to the taluka municipal administrations as it pertained to establishment of libraries in the city. She said special attention should be paid to education so that problems of students could be resolved.