Key problems: Chiniot lacks much that a district needs

CHINIOT:

Chiniot district lies on the flood belt. The residents complain of a lack of basic infrastructure required to handle the yearly travails. “Chiniot, being a new district, lacks basic amenities,” Shaikh Muhammad Azam of Chiniot City says.   

He says there is no university in the district and colleges do not offer postgraduate courses. “There are no educational institutes here that offer postgraduate degrees in IT or business.” He says the educational facilities offered here are not in proportion with the population.

Jamil Akhtar, another resident, says the district does not have proper water drainage facilities or a reliable sewerage system.

Muhammad Ahsan, a resident of Shahi Masjid, says a vast population of Chiniot district does not have adequate healthcare facilities. “We also do not have a sports stadium or centre.”

Muhammad Amin, a candidate of UC-13, points at a lacks of storage facilities for agricultural products. “Our district is one of the main centres of vegetable production, however, due to a lack of storage facilities vegetable growers end up suffering irreparable losses.”

Other residents bemoan the city’s narrow roads, lack of sanitation, traffic jams and potholes on roads left by water standing for long.

Mian Shaukat Thaheem of the PTI says Chiniot lacks all the facilities necessary for a district.

“It is the hub of the furniture manufacturing...furniture produced here is sold all over the country and abroad, however, furniture makers do not have social protection, labour rights, or government patronage.”

The PTI leader says sugarcane growers here face immense difficulties because most sugar mills delay payments for their produce, “in case of mills owned by the Sharif family, do not pay them at all”.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2015.