Local government: New public housing with Lyari quota focus of next year

Agha Siraj Durrani presents a report on his department’s performance of four years.

KARACHI:

In the next financial year, the local government department of the Sindh government will be pushing forward more public housing.

Minister Agha Siraj Durrani announced 15,000 housing units to be constructed for the public via the Lyari Development Authority. A new Halkani Town Housing Scheme will cover 38,467 acres and have a specific quota of plots for the residents of Lyari, he said.

Durrani announced this Friday night while presenting a report on the performance of his department. During this period, his department provided more than 7,000 direct and millions of indirect jobs to people, he claimed.

The Sindh local government department says it has spent around Rs123 billion on 44,700 development schemes in the province during the last four years. This includes roads, flyovers, water and sanitation projects, mega housing schemes, and other development initiatives at the district, taluka and union council levels.

The report speaks about housing schemes of Hawksbay Town and Taiser Town which have been initiated by the Lyari Development Authority and Malir Development Authority, respectively. “These schemes cater to 53,300 and 68,000 residential plots, respectively,” the minister said.

A total of 3,861 water and sanitation schemes were completed at a cost of Rs5 billion.

To provide safe drinking water to the people of Lyari and Keamari, reverse osmosis plants will be taken up through the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board at a cost of Rs4.5 billion.

Durrani briefed how his department has extended the jurisdiction of the Karachi Building Control Authority to the whole province by renaming it the Sindh Building Control Authority and regional offices have been set up in Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas and Larkana divisions.

In Karachi, the local government department set up around 121 schools and constructed eight flyovers, the minister said, adding that funds were also provided to the Sobhraj Maternity Home and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

A large number of local government employees, MPAs, MNAs belonging to coalition parties were present at the event.  Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, MQM leader Raza Haroon, MPA Munawar Ali Abbasi and Local Government Secretary Ahmed Ali Lund spoke.

While Raza Haroon stressed the need to hold local body election without any delay, Ayaz Soomro said that negotiations were going on between the coalition partners and the government would soon introduce a new system.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2012.