Daily Times

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the local government department to seek proposal from DMCs for undertaking door-to-door garbage collection through local contractors.

He issued these directives on Saturday while presiding over a meeting to review progress of the month-long garbage lifting drive. He said the actual issue is door-to-door collection of garbage and throwing it into Kundis. The chief minister directed Secretary Local Government Roshan Shaikh and Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shahalwani to sit with all the chairmen of the DMCs along with relevant deputy commissioners to discuss the proposal and work out recommendations and submit a report for approval.

The DMC chairmen told the chief minister that majority of the garbage collection machinery needs repair. The chief minister directed secretary finance to arrange funds and release those for the purpose. He also directed secretary local government to send him a summary for repair of vehicles of the DMCs and District Council Karachi.

On the request of the DMCs, the chief minister allowed them to appoint sweeping staff on daily wages basis. In the meeting, it was pointed out that a slaughter house spreading over 50-acre was lying idle in Malir. The chief minister directed Secretary Local Government Roshan Shaikh to discuss the matter with Mayor Karachi Wasim Akhtar and make the slaughter house functional.

It was pointed out that some roads constructed recently have been dug up to lay utility cables or for other purposes. Murad warned that he will take strict action against the officers concerned who failed to get such roads reconstructed.

The chief minister was told that all the six districts have lifted 283,319 tons of garbage from Sept 21 to Oct 11, 2019. The drive would continue till Oct 21 and then the cleanliness work has to be made sustainable.

The deputy commissioners in the report duly approved by the DMCs chairmen concerned said that almost 80 to 90 percent backlog of the garbage has been lifted and the reaming would be cleared by the Oct 21, 2019.

The chief minister said he has received a number of complaints that at Malir-15 Bridge gutters were over flowing and the road has developed wide craters.

The MD KWSB told the chief minister that the KDA is working there and with completion of their work, they will replace old gutter lines with new one and then road would be constructed.