KARACHI, June 30: City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal on Saturday presented the City District Government Karachi’s budget for the year 2007-08 having an outlay of Rs45,695.88 million against the estimated expenditure of Rs45,479.05 million budget and showing a surplus of Rs216.53 million. No new taxes have been levied.

“Never in the history of the city such a huge budget was presented by a local government,” he proudly told the City Council’s budget session which was marred by total chaos owing to the rumpus by opposition members.

Ignoring the loud noise, full-throat slogans and agitation all along, the city nazim went ahead with his speech though he had to cut it short.

He said the allocation to education sector stood highest, at 18 per cent while the health sector came next with seven per cent.

A sum of Rs23,529.22 million has been earmarked for uplift projects and another Rs2,624.70 million for the 18 towns and 178 union councils. The budgetary allocations include Rs10,171.18 million for the KWSB, which would release Rs5,867 million under the head of development.

The total allocation for development has been put at Rs29 billion.

The city nazim told the house that the Works and Services Department would get Rs12,553.48 million, education Rs7,991.43 million, health Rs3,137.57 million and Coordination Department Rs1,139.26 million. The amount set aside for disbursing the towns and UCs share is Rs2,624.70 million, and the Annual Development Programme Rs2,054.57 million.

According to the budget document, Rs1,815.40 million has been allocated for UCs (Women, General and Minorities seats), Rs869.63 million for Revenue Department, Rs740.19 million for municipal services, Rs480.91 million for Community Development, Rs407.35 million for Transport and Communication Department, Rs400.98 million for Finance and Planning Department, Rs288.30million for Debt Servicing, Pension Fund and miscellaneous expenditure, Rs220.27 million for Information Technology Department, Rs152.45million for Agriculture Department, Rs150.42 million for Naib Nazim’s Secretariat and Rs28.17 million for Literacy Department.

Syed Mustafa Kamal said that more than 50 uplift schemes had been identified which would be undertaken in the next fiscal. He said it was because of the hectic efforts by the city government that foreign investment was pouring in and a total of over $1 billion investment was expected to be made in the near future.

Referring to the uplift project, he said Lyari town’s water problem spanning over half a century was going to be resolved soon. Similarly, the water and sewerage problems in Baldia and Orangi towns, as well as the old city areas, would also be solved when the ongoing projects would be completed.

The nazim alleged that the opposition was criticising the government for its ulterior motives, claiming that they were perturbed over the city government’s success in carrying out massive development across the city as this would cost them the public support they were desperately seeking in view of the upcoming elections.

After the nazim concluded his speech, Naib City Nazim Ms Nasreen Jalil, who was in the chair, adjourned the house for 30 minutes. When the house reassembled, the members approved the budget with a majority while the opposition continued with its protest.

The opposition groups maintained that the relevant rules and regulations were violated in preparing the budget.

As soon as the city nazim started his speech, the opposition members holding placards in their hands stood up and drew the nazim’s attention to their objection and other grievances.

As the nazim took no notice of their uproar, the opposition members tore off copies of the budget and started raising slogans and thumping the desks to interrupt his speech. However, the nazim kept reading out his speech. The chair also dismissed their objection and asked the opposition leaders, Saeed Ghani of the Awam Dost Group and Rafiq Ahmed of the Al-Khidmat Group to stop making noise and calm down their members.Later, talking to newsmen, Mr Ghani and Mr Ahmed declared the budget document ‘illegal’, saying that the budget had been presented in total violation of the relevant rules. They also severely criticized the city nazim, and said that instead of restricting his speech to presenting the budget document, he resorted to attacking the opposition and subjecting it to threats.