KABUL: Municipality officials of northern Balkh province say 95 percent of the total budget has been spent on development during the current solar year.
Addressing an accountability conference here on Saturday, Mazar-i-Sharif Mayor Mohammad Younus Muqim said despite serious economic problems, the municipality had collected more revenue.
On the sidelines of the event, he told Pajhwok Afghan News the revenue his department had collected 300 million afghanis 20 days ahead of the close of the current fiscal year.
Most of the revenue collected included rents of municipality properties, and cleanliness tax, he said, adding 95 percent of their budget had been utilised for urban development.
The municipality planned this year to asphalt 13 kilometres of roads in Mazar-i-Sharif. About 90 percent of work on roads has been completed so far. The remaining asphalting work will be completed in the next few days.
Muqim said the graveling of an underground footpath between Kart-i-Sulh and Aryana areas of the city was also going to be completed soon.
The construction of a building for the first police district of Mazar-i-Sharif had already been completed, he continued. Five public toilets built with support from the UN Habitat are ready for use.
Additionally, the construction of a 270 metres deep stream, carrying out rainwater from the city, was under construction, the mayor explained.
On the other hand, residents complained asphalting of some roads of the city was yet to be completed. Stagnant rainwater created problems for them, the inhabitants said, blasting the municipality for its incompetency.
Mohammad Nabi, a resident of Dasht Shor area, said he lived in the 9th police district, one of the important areas of the city, but the road still remained unconstructed.
He said thousands of families lived in the neighbourhood, a bustling commercial hub, but the government paid no attention to the construction of the road despite.
Ali Jabbar, a resident of the second police district, said people could not move to the city in rains due to rainwater flooding the roads and streets.
Muqim confirmed the problems, saying they were executing projects in accordance with the urban master plan. The Dasht Shor road was still a distant project in the master plan, he added.
But the mayor said the Ministry of Urban Development had drawn up a plan for constructing the road, on which work would be initiated in the near future.
