Daily Times

LARKANA: The Larkana Municipal Corporation (LMC) on Tuesday initiated a 40-day cleanliness drive in the city, which would continue till the entire city is cleaned.

The campaign has been initiated ahead of the by elections in which Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has announced his intention to contest the NA-204 seat.

The Larkana mayor has written to the Sindh government asking for the recruitment of 400 new sanitary workers instead of resolving the issue of 1,368 local government employees whose appointments has been termed bogus. The job of cleaning open sewage drains has also been transferred from the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC) to LMC.

A meeting of the NSUSC was recently presided over by Mayor Aslam Shaikh. The meeting decided that each Union Committee would be assigned duties during the campaign in which all streets and markets would be cleaned of trash and grime in 40 days.

Shaikh said LMC sanitation staff would handle the task of cleaning blocked drains, previously given to the NSUSC. He said that the campaign would be a proper drive against garbage and not a mere photo session for the press.

Bilawal, on the eve of the commemoration of his mother’s 9th death anniversary, directed local government representatives to resolve municipal service issues and rid Larkana of all trash for good.

Sindh High Court Chief Justice, during his recent visit to Larkana, was quoted as saying “when I entered Larkana I found dust flying everywhere and asked my driver can you see the road or will you throw us into the Rice Canal”.

Deputy Secretary Aftab Abbasi, in a letter sent to the local government assistant director, pointed out that as many as 1,368 employees were appointed in excess of the entire district’s local government offices.

He also mentioned that since June 30, 2012, as many as 227 employees had been recruited to the LMC; surplus to requirements. He added that the surplus was also true for the councils, with 231 in different union councils and 56 in district councils.

He noted that most of the recruits were not even doing their duty due to being white collar appointees.