RMC converted into metropolitan corporation

Employees of municipal corporation to re-join the organisation; funds to be transferred to new accounts

RAWALPINDI: Punjab government has approved a move to upgrade the status of the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation to a metropolitan corporation after the city, which has a population of more than 1.5 million, was granted the status of a metropolitan city.

The decision to do so had essentially been taken in November 2019, but an official notification has only just been issued.

The new status of Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation has been notified under the schedule Of Establishment Deployment by the Punjab Local Government and Community Development Department (LGCDD).

LGCDD Department Secretary Ahmad Javed Qazi has communicated the directive of the administrative change to the Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Saifullah Dogar, sources said on Thursday.

Subsequently, all former municipal officers have now been re-designated as metropolitan officers and will start implementing the new schedule of establishment deployment at the corporation.

In the first phase of the conversion, all employers working at the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation will re-join the establishment.  Later, appointment on vacant posts will be made by the metropolitan corporation.

Moreover, all administrative and financial matters concerning the metropolitan corporation will be finalised before the next local government elections are held.

The LGCDD secretary has further directed to build new offices in the existing building of the corporation to house the newly-appointed officers.

Besides changing the seal and stamps, the four bank accounts of the municipal corporation in Punjab Bank will become ineffective from January 10 and money in them will be transferred to the six new bank accounts which will open under the name of Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation.

Expanding city

Officials explained that after delimitation for local government elections, under the Local Government Act 2019, the number of union councils in Rawalpindi will increase from 46 to 70. The additional UCs are essentially the 24 rural areas which have been converted into urban areas.

The district council had been suspended by the Punjab government last year while property tax was expanded to cover the 24 union councils which lay in rural areas.

Development schemes

The Rawalpindi District Development Council has approved development schemes worth Rs524 million in 46 UCs of Rawalpindi to repair roads and street.

The development schemes for the newly merged 24 UCs will be finalised when funds will be transferred from the old municipal accounts to the new accounts for the metropolitan corporation, officials said.

Currently, all development work in the city is on hold. Many roads and streets were awaiting repairs as the process of dissolving the old municipal corporation and the formation of the metropolitan corporation was going on, they said.

In some places, half-finished work remains stalled. As a result, there are streets with some streetlights which are functional while others are broken. The procedure to change even a light bulb has been put on hold due to the administrative changes which also required change in accounts, officials explained.

The development schemes worth Rs524 million in 46 UCs were approved by the elected house of RMC on the recommendation of former mayor Sardar Naseem Khan, they reminded.

However, LGCDD chief engineer had barred the municipal corporation from issuing tenders of these development schemes.

Now that the PTI government has brought down the local bodies elected during the PML-N government and introduced a new system, the tenders have been issued.

Sources said that the schemes were same, but the names have been changed on the recommendations of the PTI MNAs and MPAs. Under the new local government set up, the metropolitan corporation administrator and Rawalpindi commissioner will approve commencement of work on the development schemes, they said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2020.