Proposed 'marble city' yet to get a single penny despite nearly Rs six billion allocation

The Sindh government has not yet spent any amount from the allocation of Rs 5.9 billion made in the budget for the proposed marble city, though it has already allotted 300 acres of land for the project on the outskirts of metropolis. The government is building the proposed city near Northern Bypass, Sindh Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah told the Sindh Assembly on Friday while responding to the provincial legislators questions.
"The government earmarked Rs 5.9 billion in this fiscal budget to develop the city to augment marble productions but no spending has yet been made to carry out the project," the minister said. The government approved the establishment of marble city in 2012-13, he added.
He said that the Sindh Coastal Development Project had been completed in 2013 at a cost of Rs 2.75 billion of which Asian Development Bank contributed Rs 2.53 billion and the government bore Rs 212.2 million. On a city quota, the government appointed 60 persons in Sindh Social Development Department from January 1, 2008 to Mar 15, 2013, he said. Responding the criticism of opposition leader in the house Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hasan (MQM) over the grenade attacks at a private school, government girls college and police station in the city, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah promised to hand the perpetrators an exemplary punishment.
Izhar said that the terrorists had carried out co-ordinated explosive cracker attacks within one and half hour, leaving three children injured. He questioned the government as to what had held it back from evolving a security plan to protect students from terror attacks. "The assembly's procedures are meaningless if our kids are insecure," he clamored.
"The children injured in the attacks were children of Sindh and ours," Qaim Ali Shah said, adding that the government was going to protect school children and citizens. He said that the Sindh had never been in grip of terrorism as such, pointing at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab for being chaotic.
"We don't have much resources, funds, or Rangers and police personnel but have taken better steps. The rest Allah will secure. We will also protect our people," he said, adding that the government had accepted the challenge of protecting over 40,000 schools in Sindh. Despite shortage of resources, the government ensured effective measures, he said.
Sindh Home Minster Sohail Anwar Siyal asked the legislators to help him identify the police stations, which denied registering complaints of citizens for their stolen cellular phones. On the street crimes, he said that the Sindh Home Department had dismissed three SHOs and suspended six others. The house will meet again on Monday morning.