KARACHI, June 29: The controversy over the administrative control of the water utility took a new turn on Sunday when City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal declared that he was no longer responsible for the water and sanitation problems facing the citizens.

He advised the people to approach the local government minister for the solution of their problems pertaining to water and sanitation.

Speaking at a post-budget press conference, the nazim categorically said that he wanted to inform the masses that he had nothing to do with the city’s water and sewerage issues. “I am not responsible [for the KWSB] and I am helpless,” he said.

Referring to the several statements made by Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani claiming to be the chairman of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, the nazim said that by virtue of his position as the chairman, the minister was now responsible for the city’s water and sewerage system and people should either approach the minister or the management of the water utility to lodge their complaints.

Mr Kamal said that the provincial government took control of the water utility since they were sceptical about the performance of the city government. “Now it is their turn to prove that they can perform better than the city government,” said the nazim.

The nazim replied in the negative when asked whether the city government would pay salaries of some 6,000 employees of the KWSB as had been suggested by its managing director, Suleman Chandio.

“Why should the city government pay salaries to the employees of the KWSB?” he said. He said that the KWSB had passed its budget for 2008-09 and, therefore, it was not included in the city government budget.

Observers may recall that on April 24 the Sindh government took over the administrative control of the KWSB by removing the nazim from the chairmanship of the water utility and appointed the Sindh LG minister in his place.

However, after a series of meetings, finally the matter came under discussion at a high-level meeting presided over by the Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, on June 12 during which he had agreed that the mandate to run the water utility should be with the city government. However, the LG minister resisted the move and till date he has been controlling the KWSB.

Coming to the CDGK budget, the nazim said the City Council had passed a surplus budget with an outlay of Rs37.1 billion.

He congratulated all the Haq Parast council members for the passage of the budget in a democratic manner. He, however, criticised the opposition for adopting, what he called, a non-serious and undemocratic attitude during the budget session.

Mr Kamal said that there was a shortfall of around Rs2 billion in the head of the provincial government’s grant and over Rs1 billion would be spent on the increase in salaries of the city government’s employees.

“Despite facing this shortfall, the Haq Parast leadership of the city government will not stop any development work in the city and for this purpose we will minimise non-development expenditures,” he added.

He said that in the budget, the allocation in the health and education sectors had been increased by nine and 26 per cent, respectively.

Responding to a question about the protest by opposition members during his budget speech, he clarified that under the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, the city government was not bound to fund the union councils directly.

“Last year, we had disbursed Rs820 million to the UCs out of which Rs300 million had been given to the opposition UC nazims,” he said.

He said the city government had started direct funding to the UCs during the era of the former city nazim, Niamatullah Khan, when his opposition had threatened him that they would not cooperate with him in the passage of the budget.

The nazim said that for the next financial year, the city government allocated Rs1 billion for the UCs. “I will not use this fund as a political bribe and its distribution will be made on merit and on the basis of the nature of projects of the UCs concerned,” he said.