Allotment of land to the MDA and giving the towns the status of urban area is really condemnable.
KARACHI: Through your newspaper, I would like to raise a voice against an important issue that is ruining the rural areas of Karachi. Recently, an amendment was made to the Sindh Local Government Act under which rural areas of Karachi, such as Bin Qasim Town and Gadap Town of District Malir, were given the status of District Municipal Corporation. This was done to get political advantage in the upcoming local bodies elections. These are the so-called ‘backward’ areas of Karachi, where poor people are deprived of basic health and education facilities. People mostly rely on their agricultural land, which is one of the major sources of vegetable and fruit supply for the metropolitan city. Giving these localities the status of urban areas is unfair as people over here lack basic facilities.
Secondly, the public notice that was issued stated that the Malir Development Authority (MDA) had been allotted the 43 rural divisions of Bin Qasim and Gadap Town. In most cases, this land was allotted on a 30-year lease to poor farmers for agricultural purposes. The area consists of thousands of villages which existed before the creation of Pakistan. Thousands of families rely on this agricultural land as their basic source of income while catering to the demand for vegetables from the metropolis at reasonable rates. Allotment of land to the MDA and giving the towns the status of urban area is really condemnable. Higher authorities must take action against this injustice.
Shahnawaz Jokhio
Published in The Express Tribune, January 8th, 2014.
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