Mayor demands uplift package for Karachi from PM, Sindh govt

Mayor Wasim Akhtar has demanded that Prime Minister Imran Khan and the provincial government announce a big development package for Karachi to resolve the many civic problems the people of the city are facing.More than seventy years have passed since the country came into existence, but Karachi still does not have water for poor people, medicines in hospitals and affordable education facilities, the mayor said on Tuesday addressing the inauguration ceremony of the laying of a water pipeline in Bhangoria Goth, Azizabad.“No government has ever done justice to Karachi and no policy has ever been made to pave the way for the city’s progress,” he said. “Karachi should get its due share.”Earlier, the mayor inaugurated the project with MPA Kanwar Naveed Jamil and DMC Central Chairman Rehan Hashmi by his side. Works Committee Chairman Hassan Naqvi as well as other elected representatives and locals were also present on the occasion.Through the pipeline, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation will supply water to the residents of Bhangoria Goth near Azizabad for first time since the locality came into being.The pipeline will supply three union councils, UC-30, 32 and 33, which have a combined population of about 0.8 million. The three-kilometre-long pipeline was laid from Darul Uloom Naeemia to Bhangoria Goth at a cost of Rs50 million.Mayor Akhtar told journalists that the city was facing a lot of problems and although water and sewerage was not the responsibility of KMC, it was carrying out such projects for citizens’ benefit. He said it was unfortunate that people residing in the centre of the city were deprived of water for so long.According to the mayor, the KMC was aware of the problems of each and every area in the city and making all efforts possible to solve these within its limited resources.Speaking about other civic issues in the city, he said corruption was the reason behind the garbage remaining un-lifted, and that it was ill planning that not a single bus had been added to the city’s transport system in the past 10 years, forcing people to travel in overcrowded and overloaded buses.He claimed they had provided development plans to the prime minister, but they were not being implemented.MPA Kanwar Naveed Jamil said that he could not even imagine that such a locality in the city centre was deprived of pipeline water. “Although, it is not our responsibility, we are paying attention on these issues also.”

from The News International - Karachi http://bit.ly/2CKDbLh