Daily Times

LAHORE: The process to collect the offals’ of sacrificial animal from the streets and bazaars of the city by Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) remains slow despite the passage of Eidul Azha, Daily Times has observed.

The LWMC received 7,500 complaints with regard to assistance and resolution of waste-related issues by citizens.

Sources said the LWMC has removed around 40,000 tonnes of waste of sacrificial animals during cleanliness operation to ensure zero waste in the city.

Meanwhile, animals’ waste was dumped at specially established dumping points in an environment-friendly manner.

LWMC has setup 274 sanitation camps in union councils (UCs) of the metropolis along with 18 other model camps; however, sanitation workers were not present in several camps, which held to guide and provide assistance to citizens, which was observed on visit of this scribe.

The sanitation workers in UC 217, on the directives of LWMC Supervisor Mirza Ashraf, collected the animals’ waste to provide relief to the public.

It is pertinent to mention here that practice of cleaning of streets from water and phenyl were not witnessed in the city, whereas a large quantity of phenyl was provided to LWMC zonal offices in this regard. Meanwhile, shortage of garbage bags were also observed on sanitation camps of LWMC.

The LWMC spokesperson, while talking to Daily Times, told that the process of animals’ waste and offals’ collection were slow but in some areas their strategy focused on swift and timely lifting of animal waste from streets engaging 2,800 pickups and transportation of waste to 113 temporary waste collection and transfer stations and later on to dumping sites.

The LWMC officials received thousands of complaints in which 95 percent issues have been resolved on citizens’ complaints, he said.

Meanwhile, the remaining five percent issues will be addressed before the concluding operation at Thursday night, he added.

The spokesperson said that LWMC will take strict action against those responsible officials who were not working efficiently adding that special arrangements were made at major slaughter houses by deploying workers and machinery including mechanical washing.

Lahore DCO Captain (r) Usman has also reprimanded sanitation workers during his visit to several areas of the city to check the performance of deputed workers for collecting the animals’ waste, he said.

Further, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has announced to give 10-days’ salary to all LWMC employees, as a token of appreciation, he added.

Adviser to Punjab CM, Khawaja Ahmad Hassan, LWMC Chairman Ahmad Rafay Alam, LWMC MD Bilal Mustafa Syed and other members remained in the field during three days of Eid and monitored operations both from the control room and field areas.

The operations were also monitored by android-based mobile system and pictorial record was maintained and thousands of pictures were made available on the portal of Punjab Information and Technology Board, the spokesperson said.