#Fixingit: CM displeased with city’s cleanliness, drainage system

Directs officials to clear them within a week or face dire consequences

KARACHI: Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has directed the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) administration and Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) to clean drains, improve sewerage system and repair damaged roads within a week or face consequences. He also gave KMC officials a week to fix the manhole covers in the city.

He issued these directives during his whirlwind tour of the city to inspect the condition of sewerage lines, gutters, drains and KMC roads, following the incident where a citizen stenciled Shah's face next to garbage and uncovered manholes. He was accompanied by Karachi commissioner Asif Haider Shah, AIG Mushtaq Maher, KMC administrator Sajjad Abbasi, KWSB managing director Misbahuddin Farid and other relevant officials. Interestingly, the local government minister, whose department deals with local bodies' services, was not present.





Farid said there were 24 points in the city where the sewerage system has either choked or is damaged. "We have started repair work to solve the problems," he said, adding that there were 350,000 manholes in the city and his team was personally keeping an eye on their covers. The CM expressed his displeasure and said that it was not his duty to remind KWSB and KMC officers of their duties and functions.

"Due to your failure [KMC and KWSB officers], the citizens have started looking at me and are protesting against me," he deplored, directing them to keep the city clean or face action against them.

The CM issued directives to start cleaning the city of garbage, clean storm-water drains, maintain the sewerage system properly, keep all manholes covered and repair the damaged roads of the city within two weeks. "This is a deadline. I must be given your work plan according to the directives within 24 hours and you start work on a war footing. After two weeks either I or my team will visit the entire city and then no excuse will be accepted," he warned.



He directed the Karachi commissioner to personally monitor the work and make the deputy commissioners responsible for the inspection of cleanliness and repair work in the city. Concluding his visit, the CM inspected the cleanliness work of the Manzoor Colony Nullah, which was filled with garbage.



Official sources said that it took 30 minutes for the officials to discover the location of the drain, which irked the chief minister. "I am quite surprised to see that the relevant KMC officers do not know about the location of Manzoor Colony Nullah. When you don't know the site of the drain how would you clean it?" he asked, warning authorities to clean it within a week and report back to him.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2016.