KARACHI: CDGK faces over Rs712m shortfall in two months

The pace of work on a number of development projects being carried out in the metropolis has been adversely affected as the Sindh government did not release the full amount of monthly share to the city government during the last two months, causing a shortfall of Rs712.22 million.

Sources told Dawn that the CDGK was supposed to get Rs2.456 billion from the provincial government during the last two months in the heads of monthly share for the salaries of employees of the devolved departments, non-salary city government’s annual development programme for the current fiscal and octroi zila tax (OZT). However, the provincial government released only Rs1.744 billion to the city government, leaving a shortfall of Rs712.22 million.

They said that the majority of development projects being carried out in the city either had to slow down the pace of work or completely stop due to the non-availability of the required funds. The sources said that the Sindh government was supposed to release Rs1.228 billion as the monthly share of May. But the government only provided Rs872.034 million, leaving a shortfall of Rs356.11 million.

A senior official of the city government told Dawn that the functioning of the works and services department had suffered badly due to short release of the monthly share. He said that various projects, including flyovers on Nagan Chowrangi, Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Banaras, major roads including the Super Highway to Surjani, New Karachi, Korangi, Manghopir Road and the construction of community centre in Site Town have been affected.

He, however, maintained that the CDGK, on the basis of bridge financing started work on Nagan Chowrangi and Gulshan-i-Iqbal flyovers to complete the projects as early as possible.

Sindh Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani said that the cut in monthly grant was not limited to the city district government of Karachi as all district governments in the province were facing the same problem. He said the provincial government was not getting its full share from the federal government due to which it had no other option but to slash the monthly share of the district government. He promised to approach the federal government in this regard.

However, a source in the CDGK’s finance and planning department told Dawn that the previous Sindh government released the full amount of monthly share to the city government from its own resources regardless of the fact it had received the required funds from the federal government or not.

The source, however, said that the provincial government had already taken up the issue with the federal government, which assured it would release the remaining amount by June 30.