City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal amidst a severe kind of uproar by opposition during the special session of City Council has announced to computerise the water billing system to increase the revenues for Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) by involving union councils (UCs) nazims.
Laying down a revenue collection formula, he said that the UCs would be given 20 percent of the total collection, similarly, five percent would be given to the respective town nazim for the development work.
Presiding over the council session, Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil resumed the proceedings on Monday at the city council hall and invited City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal to address the councillors. Soon afterwards, he started his speech regarding water-billing procedure, opposition members resorted to creating a harsh kind of uproar by chanting slogans.
Kamal said the KWSB was an important department providing water to the citizens. He pointed out that KWSB was receiving only 25 percent payments as water bills from consumers annually, adding that the metropolis had badly lacked the culture of paying off dues.
He said that KWSB's expenses were higher than its revenues, adding that, "its expenditures stand at 4.5 billion against revenues which is Rs 2.7 billion only". He said that CDGK was intending to boost up this very department's revenues through collection of water bills.
He said the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) was taking initiative to centralise the entire system with a view to facilitate the end consumers, in addition to augmenting the KWSB's revenues.
Elaborating the new water bill policy, Kamal said the KWSB inspectors and sub-inspectors on town levels would also be given incentives, which would additional to their monthly salaries.
He involved the UC nazims in the collection of water bills, saying that they would visit the consumers along with KWSB's assigned inspectors to collect the payments at their doorsteps. He also asked all UC nazims to allocate space in their offices for the KWSB's billing staff to perform their duties perfectly.
Saeed Ghani, opposition leader of the Awam Dost Panel in the city council, on a point of order said the present CDGK should depute sanitary workers and KWSB staff to repair the leaked pipelines and for water bills distribution. He alleged that CDKG had involved its unit and sector offices to perform sanitary work in their respective areas while asking the UC nazims to collect water payments. He pointed out that in Jamshed Town and Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town, the respective town nazims had transferred secretaries of four UCs of opposition and also frozen the bank accounts, calling for the end of such practices.
Masood Mehmood from treasury benches, said the secretaries of UC 4, 5, 6 and 7 were transferred due to their poor performance and complaints from the town nazim. He said that two new secretaries have been posted and the remaining would soon be appointed on the empty slots.
Mehboob-ur-Rehman from opposition, criticised that they had not been informed about the Nazim's address to the session, adding that opposition had also not been taken into confidence pertaining to the new water billing policy.
He said in different parts of the Keamari Town, the majority of the water quota is being utilised by the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and Pakistan Navy, demanding that issue should be resolved by providing the required water quota to the town residents.
Replying to questions raised by the opposition members, City Nazim alleged the activists of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were creating hurdles in the way of water provision to the inhabitants of the Lyari Town. He said that PPP workers were behind the delay of the proposed water project for Lyari, adding that CDGK had decided to complete the project in a record four-month period.
His remarks and allegations against the PPP workers provoked the opposition members who started shouting and chanting slogans against CDGK and demanded for withdrawal of his comments. Saeed Ghani accused that opposition had submitted several resolutions to the Naib Nazim but none of them was allowed to be tabled in the council.
Abdul Razzaq, nazim UC 4, Site Town invited the attention of the Nasreen Jalil to the increasing cases of kidnapping for ransom in his town and demanded of her to take steps for restoring the law and order situation. Naib Nazim adjourned the session till Tuesday (today).