Rather than increase the utilisation of the funds, the government has decided to decrease development funds for KMC's ongoing schemes by almost 70%, bringing it down to Rs1.1 billion.
The Sindh government seems too preoccupied with their demands for 'special packages' for Karachi's local government to pay much attention to their budgetary commitments for the development of the city.
Last year, the government spent only 19% of the allocated Rs3.6 billion budget for the 10 ongoing Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) schemes, as compared to the utilisation of 38% of the total development funds for the rest of Sindh.
Rather than increase the utilisation of the funds, the government has decided to decrease development funds for KMC's ongoing schemes by almost 70%, bringing it down to Rs1.1 billion. Three out of 10 development schemes saw no money being spent on them and their budgets were merely carried forward.
Meanwhile, the government has also introduced two new development schemes; one of them is the construction of a three-kilometre road from Safoora Goth to Saadi Town, with an allocation of Rs55 million. The other package has a whopping Rs1 billion allocated to it but is merely labelled as 'Karachi package' and has no further explanation or context to it.
With funds having been slashed dramatically and the government expected to continue the trend of under-utilising the budget, the remaining development projects have become shrouded with uncertainty. On the other hand, the government expects to complete several new schemes of water, sanitation, environment and social welfare with the funds. The revamping of the Gujjar Nullah has been allocated Rs100 million and Rs200 million have been kept to upgrade the Dhabeji pumping station.
Southern Sindh
Potholes, speed breakers, sewage spewing out of drainage lines epitomise Hyderabad's infrastructure.
The Sindh government has earmarked over Rs700 million for development schemes for these two basic systems. However, past expenditure trends hardly offer any hope of a revamp.
The local government (LG) and works and services departments have 42 ongoing and new projects for construction, renovation and improvement of roads, drainage and water supply systems. The projects have an estimated cost of Rs9.33 billion; out of which Rs730 million have been set aside for this year.
The Hyderabad Development Package (HDP) will be given Rs243 million to complete projects that are to cost a total of over Rs3 billion. The HDP is working on three ongoing drainage schemes in the Qasimabad tehsil and two new projects of construction and rehabilitation of roads in rural Hyderabad.
The local government department has been allocated Rs277 million to build water supply and drainage networks roads and bypass bridges. An outlay of Rs210 million has been reserved for the works and services department, which will be for construction and improvement of roads only.
The HDP has received the complete allocation of over Rs467 million for two drainage projects in Qasimabad.
However, most of the main roads in Hyderabad are in a dilapidated condition. No effective mechanism to ensure quality check of road construction material is in place.
The district's three tehsils are supplied water from the filtration plants but the people in the Hyderabad rural tehsil are still deprived of filtered water. The government has allocated Rs3 million for a filtration plant project, that has a total cost of Rs639 million.
Northern Sindh
Funds allocated for various development projects in northern Sindh have gone down the drain as projects are either left incomplete or have been rendered useless due to substandard material. Once again a huge amount of Rs1 billion has been allocated to construct drains in different union councils of Larkana.
In the Khairpur district, some of the roads were constructed twice during the last government but require renovation once more.
Besides this, several overhead bridges are yet to be completed. Water supply and drainage systems have become a constant issue for the residents and a source of income for the contractors.
Supply of potable water and proper drainage systems are the main problems of the people of northern Sindh and the Sindh government always allocates sufficient funds for them. However, these funds are seldom utilised and are often carried forward so that they only look good on paper and do little else.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2014.
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