Sindh plans to develop unplanned settlements

KARACHI: The Sindh government is planning to develop katchi abadies or unplanned settlements across the province and create a database of them.

The Sindh Assembly’s standing committee on Katchi Abadies and Spatial and Rural Development recommended on Thursday around 70.15 million rupees for schemes in the settlements across the province. Talking to The Express Tribune, the committee’s chairman Sohail Yousuf said that the problem was that all of them lacked basic facilities such as drinking water and sewerage systems.

They are planning to start work on 11 schemes in all 18 towns of Karachi. Two schemes will also be started in Hyderabad, five in Jamshoro, two in Badin, four in Mirpurkhas, three in Sanghar, five in Ghotki, two in Larkana, two in Shahdadkot, two in Kashmore. The government has recommened more money for the development budget for the year 2010-2011 for each katchi abadi located in Tando Mohammed Khan, Dadu, Sukkur, Khairpur, Nawabshah and Sukkur.

Earlier on, while briefing the media, minister Rafique Engineer said that during the current fiscal year around 20 million rupees were allocated for schemes in the province, but only 10 million rupees was provided by the Sindh Finance department. There are a total of 1,200 unplanned settlements in the province and the government was also planning to start basic heath facilities in them.

APP reports that the committee approved in principle the recommendation for Rs500 million and Rs215 million in proposed projects for the katchi abadi and rural development departments for 2010-11. The meeting was attended by Sindh Minister for Katchi Abadis Rafique Engineer, Minister for Rural Development Zubair Ahmed Khan, the secretaries Qabool Ahmed Shaikh and Abdul Malik Ghauri, DGs Kashif Gulzar Shaikh and Abdul Sattar Qureshi among others.

A number of these settlements have been given proprietory rights over the last two years. Next year 85 katchi abadis will be provided basic facilities. In his briefing, Khan said that his department was working on water supplies and roads in rural areas.