Delayed reaction: MQM opposes separation of four UCs in Hyderabad

Lawmakers point out problems with sanitation, water supply.

HYDERABAD:

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) opposed the separation of four union councils (UC) in Hyderabad Rural taluka, its leaders announced on Saturday.

The government is planning to carve out a new district from Badin by adding parts of Hyderabad and Tando Muhammad districts in it. From Hyderabad, Husri, Mulaan, Tando Fazal and Seri UCs will be made part of the new district. The MQM legislators MNA Waseem Hussain and MPAs Rashid Khilji, Sabir Qaimkhani, Zubair Ahmed Khan, Aisha Aftab, Raina Ansar and Dilawar Qureshi raised objections to this division at a press conference.

"Hyderabad was set to be declared as a metropolitan corporation but, due to a conspiracy, it was denied this status," said Khilji. He argued that the separation of four UCs will adversely affect the residents as the distance from Hyderabad's Central district is less than that of Matli. Husri is only seven to eight kilometres away from the Central district while it is more than 40km away from Matli.



Moreover, Hyderabad being a more developed district in comparison to Matli offers greater opportunities to the residents of these UCs, he pointed out. Khilji said the move will deprive the district of the two oil fields in Tando Alam Mari and Tando Fazal as well as Seri Sugar Mill, which contribute to the taxes collected from Hyderabad.

In November last year, the provincial minister floated a plan to create Qasimabad, one of the four talukas of Hyderabad, as a new district. However, the chief minister rejected the proposal in view of opposition to the division.

The MQM legislators also complained against the provincial government for what they described as discrimination in development expenditure in the areas which elected them. MNA Zubair Ahmed Khan said that only five per cent of Rs3.8 billion released between 2010 and 2014 were spent on City and Latifabad talukas. The actual amount of allocation for these four years was Rs22 billion for 46 schemes out of which only six were located in these two talukas.

"Such discrimination will create distances and hatred instead of fostering love and harmony among the people of Sindh," the legislator cautioned.

"The city's infrastructure is continuously deteriorating and there are severe problems of water supply, drainage and sanitation, encroachment on government land and growing incidence of crime," complained Khilji. We have raised the issues of law and order and encroachment in the Sindh Assembly but to no avail, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2014.