Islamabad. PHOTO: EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD: The members of Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) have blamed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed for interfering in the corporation’s affairs.
The participants of the meeting also accused IMC Director Zafar Iqbal of corruption. Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz however turned on the mute button and kept quiet on both the issues in his address.
At the outset of the 44th monthly IMC meeting held on Wednesday, the members criticised the CDA chairman and said that he should run CDA and let IMC do its work. They urged the mayor to take notice of the situation and assured him of unconditional support on the matter. They said that IMC officials and employees were still following the rules and regulations of CDA while the authority’s chairman had established more authority in the corporation than the mayor.
If the CDA chairman was to run to local government body, then why were the public representatives summoned for meeting every month, they said.
The members said that mayor and CDA chairman were focusing on urban areas and neglecting development in rural areas of Islamabad.
Further, IMC Director Zafar Iqbal presented a summary regarding increase in charges of various commercial facilities including cable television networks, telecom towers and weekly bazaars.
IMC members approved the summary regarding the increment in monthly charges of telecom towers on CDA and IMC land to Rs400,000 from Rs150,000. It approved increasing charges for telecom towers on private property from Rs50,000 to Rs150,000. The summary also approved five per cent annual increase in charges.
The members also gave approval of increment in annual charges on cable network of B-1 category to Rs5,000, B-2 to Rs10,000, H-2 to Rs25,000, B-1 to B-3 Rs50,000, B-4 Rs75,000 and B-7 to Rs0.1 million.
The monthly rent of restaurants using open spaces on IMC land for category A in sectors E and F, Blue Area, Diplomatic Enclave was increased to Rs500 per square feet (sqft) from Rs143 per sqft of the open space where they keep their tables and chairs.
The metropolitan corporation meeting also approved increasing rent for open space of category B restaurants to Rs400 per sqft in sectors G and I and Rs300 per sqft for category C eateries.
The charges on the stall measuring eight-by-eight feet in weekly bazaars were increased to Rs1,000 per month from Rs120 while different increment was also approved on stalls with varying sizes.
Further, the members accused the director IMC saying that he was doing corruption of millions every month and added that there were more than a thousand telecom towers in the city however only 250 were registered after multiple written complaints. The members alleged that the attitude of the director was rogue towards them and questioned how the heavy revenue generated under telecom towers, advertisements, etc was suddenly reduced to only Rs34,000 in November.
Mayor Aziz said that they were serving the people with the available resources and hoped that the affairs of IMC would soon improve.
When The Express Tribune contacted the director, he said that he was not concerned about the accusations IMC members make every day.
Development work starts in Sector E-12
Development work in Sector E-12, which remained stalled for more than three decades, has been started, Capital Development Authority (CDA) said on Wednesday.
According to a statement issued by CDA, in the first phase, work on the Service Road (North) of Sector E-12 is being carried out. In this context, contractor after mobilizing machinery started construction of the service road.
CDA had issued tenders for the construction of said road in September. Sixteen firms participated in the tendering process and contract was awarded to the lowest bidding firm. According to contract, dualised service road would be constructed and culverts, drainage system and allied work would also be carried out. The road would be completed with the cost Rs97.107 million.
Incumbent management of the authority is acting upon a comprehensive policy for initiating development activities in the sectors which were stalled since decades. In this context, after fulfilling codel formalities in short span, construction of the service road (North) sector E-12 has been started while PC-1 amounting Rs6.6 billion for the development whole infrastructure including road network, water supply, sewerage, drainage and electrical works in sector has already been approved by the CDA-DWP in its 45th meeting.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2019.
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