KARACHI: Several schemes relating to street children launched by the provincial social welfare ministry years ago cannot be completed or have been abandoned altogether because of several reasons of which`inefficiency`and`illplanning` on the part of the relevant officials are described as key factors, officials said on Wednesday.

In a meeting between Adviser to the Chief Minister on Social Works Shamim Mumtaz andWorks and Services Minister Imdad Pitafi at the latter`s office on Wednesday, the former conceded that inef ficiency, lethargy and ill planning on the part of her department contributed to delays in completion of several schemes.

She said PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had asked the Sindh government in its last cabinet meeting to complete development schemes in Karachi division on priority basis to restore the past glory of the metropolis.

`Due to inefficiency, lethargy and ill planning, developmentschemes were not completed despite passage of a long time, she said, adding that soon after assuming charge of the social welfare department she held a number of meetings with engineersandcontractorsconcerned and ordered them to give her final completion date of development schemes but `they gave new dates every time`.

Officials quoted her as saying that in 2011 construction of a street children rehabilitation centre in Korangi No. 5 was started at the cost of Rs314.54 million, but despite passage of six years, the scheme was stillincomplete.

She said in 2014, an umbrella scheme costing Rs199.91m was initiated for upgrading of 15 centres of special children across the province. The work on upgrading of Gulbarg centre was `satisfactory`, while the work on the rest of the 14 centres faced continuing delays.

She said the concept of umbrella scheme was unnecessary under which a number of schemes of the remote areas were merged into one scheme.

She conceded that certain hardships had been noticed in execution and monitoring ofsuch schemes. However, she did not elaborate.

Minister Pitafi said Chief Minister Murad All Shah had extended strict orders to complete all development schemes in time. He assured the adviser to the chief minister that development schemes of social welfare ministry pertaining to Karachi would be completed on priority basis.

The officials said 92 per cent work on the street children rehabilitation centre in Korangi had been completed while two blocks of the centre would be handed over to the social wel-fare ministry by May 15.

Similarly, they added that the scheme to upgrade social welfare training institute in Gulshan-i-Iqbal would be completed by June 2017 while senior citizens` rehabilitation centre in New Karachi was one rare scheme which was being completed one year before its scheduled date of completion. It would be handed over to the relevant authorities by June.

The officials claimed the scheme to upgrade special children centres in districts Karachi West, Malir and Lyari would be completed on priority basis.