Saturday, August 27, 2011

Administration hit by officers’ transfer: Manipulation alleged


Administration hit by officers’ transfer: Manipulation alleged



By Shamsul Islam Naz


FAISALABAD, Feb 2: The City District Government Faisalabad has yet to overcome the teething troubles due to which people have been facing a great deal of inconvenience.

The Lyallpur Town Administration is in a particularly difficult situation in the wake of ‘manipulation’ of transfers by the tehsil municipal officer and the four town officers during the last one month.

The Lyallpur Town and three other towns — Jinnah, Iqbal and Madina — emerged after widening up of the tehsil municipal administrations of Saddar and city and the creation of the City District Government before the local elections of 2005.

As many as 38 union councils, including 16 of the rural areas, have been made part of the Lyallpur Town having a population of 717,710, including 310,617 in rural areas.

Almost all the major functions like municipal waste management, environment, health, garden and engineering, town planning and infrastructure development have been assigned to the CDGF with the abolition of the TMAs in consonance with the Local Government Ordinance of 2005.

The local government assumed the functions immediately after its formal functioning, but the expenses of petroleum of vehicles and their maintenance, bills of electricity and other expenses were to be borne by the Lyallpur Town — the ‘mother town’.

Trouble started in the town when nazim-elect Rana Zahid Mahmood announced that he would not allow any of the functionaries of his town to indulge in any malpractice or receive commissions from contractors or ask daily-wagers to do work other than official. The nazim launched a vigorous campaign against commercial area encroachments and removed huge publicity boards from the city areas, which blocked the way of ‘bribery’ for the town employees.

Rana Zahid also established a secret network for monitoring the town officials and to restrain them from receiving bribes from the public by pressuring them on one pretext or the other.

All senior functionaries of the Local Government Department deputed in the Lyallpur Town, who were mainly responsible for streamlining the functioning of the town in planning, finance, taxation, engineering and civic development, got themselves transferred in the last one month, leaving the town in the lurch.

Town Municipal Officer Salahuddin has been transferred from the Lyallpur Town and posted as joint registrar of the Cooperative Societies Punjab just a couple of days ago.

It is pertinent to mention that the transfers had been sought immediately after the town Administration had announced that it would present the budget for the six months of 2006.

Mujeebuz Zaman Sahmi, Town Officer Finance, was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Department for his alleged involvement in corruption and abuse of power. Ali Imran and Rana Naseem, town officers of planning and coordination, and infrastructure and services, respectively, have been posted in the city district government. While Naeemullah Warraich, town officer (regulations), has been given a post in Lahore.

The town nazim confirmed that all the four town officers and the TMO had been transferred and no replacement had been made.

Meanwhile, District Coordination Officer Azam Suleman Khan is learnt to have sent a message to the Local Government and Rural Development provincial secretary to urgently appoint the officers or at least give additional charge to the district officers to run day-to-day affairs of the town and save it from absolute disorder.

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