Harsh punishments: ‘Illegal hydrant operators to get 5-year jail term’

Memon says water shortfall can be managed if these hydrants are removed

KARACHI: Sindh information and local government minister Sharjeel Memon announced that the government will legislate against illegal hydrants, fixing a punishment of five years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs1 million for the operators of the hydrants.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Memon said that he had given a deadline of October 10 to the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) and local bodies officers for the removal of all illegal hydrants from the city.

The minister said that there were 90 illegal hydrants operating in the city, of which 40 had been demolished while the removal of the remaining 50 hydrants was in progress.

He lamented that the Sindh High Court had issued stay orders in favour of some illegal hydrants. "I have directed KWSB managing director Qutubuddin Shaikh to try to get such stay orders vacated and then bulldoze the illegal hydrants."

Memon said that the city was experiencing a shortage of 350 MGD of water, adding that this shortage could be managed by removing the illegal hydrants. He further said that the 18 reverse osmosis (RO) plants installed in the city were being converted for the purification of seawater. "The K-4 project will take three to four years to be completed, so we are converting the RO plants to clean seawater to meet Karachi's water requirements," he explained.

Responding to a question, Memon said that there were numerous illegal encroachments on parks and other amenity plots in the metropolis. "I have personally monitored the demolition of such illegal structures, but they reappear soon afterwards," he stated.

He asserted that a report on the ongoing cleanliness drive submitted by the local bodies was unsatisfactory. "The DMCs have only removed the garbage lying along the main roads," he claimed.

Talking about the abundance of billboards in the city, Memon said that he had told the local tax director to follow government policy and only grant permission in necessary cases. "We will launch an operation against illegal and unnecessary billboards," he stated.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2014.