No one left behind: CM is not going to leave District Malir in the dust

Reviews incomplete development schemes in the area, orders action

KARACHI: Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has said that Karachi’s rural areas will not be forgotten during the city’s uplift. He said this while presiding over a meeting on development issues of District Malir at the Sindh Secretariat on Thursday.

Elected representatives from District Malir said that around 113 educational institution schemes, including schools and colleges, were incomplete due to shortage of funds, failure to form PC-IV (completion of the project) and so on.

The CM discussed each scheme and then ordered the engineers concerned to take rounds of the schemes and send him detailed reports within three days. He also directed the education department to prepare a sanctioned new expenditure report within two days for the educational institutions completed recently so that they could be made functional. “It would be a great success for me if I make 113 educational institutions functional by the end of the current financial year,” he said.



He was also informed that most of the health centres in the district are not functioning to their capacity because of ghost doctors. “Those who are reluctant to do their work, they should not be with us,” replied Shah, directing the health minister to investigate the matter. He said that he had declared a health emergency, which meant that everyone in the health department has to rush to provide health services to the people of Sindh.

After being told about a non-functional 60-bed health centre in Asu Goth, the CM directed the health minister to propose its sanctioned new expenditure report and get it approved from the finance and planning and development departments within a week.

The meeting also discussed the issue of water supply schemes, such as a water supply scheme for 52 villages of Gadap being completed but having no pole-mounted transformers to start operation. Upon hearing this, the chief minister directed the Karachi commissioner to talk to K-Electric and get the transformers installed.

The meeting was still in progress when the CM sent the health minister and his team to visit all the under-construction health centre schemes. “I want a detailed report on the release and utilisation of funds and the reason of the delay so that appropriate action can be taken,” he directed.

He also sent an education department team with the same instructions and directed them to complete the survey within three days and keep him sending daily reports.

The chief minister directed the chief secretary to request National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to increase the number of their centres in the district as there are only two centres presently - one in Memon Goth and the other in Gulshan-e-Hadeed - which are insufficient to cater to the needs of the area.

The chief minister also directed the commissioner to hold weekly meetings on development in each district of Karachi so that issues could be identified and resolved swiftly.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2016.