CM Sindh orders cancellation of contracts of firms engaged for picking garbage

Gives municipal authorities a week to clean city

KARACHI: The Sindh government, it seems, is finally waking up to the fact that Karachi - the largest city of Pakistan - practically looks like one big garbage dump. A day earlier, the local government minister, Saeed Ghani, warned municipal authorities to clean up the city within a week or he would take "strict action" against them. On Thursday, it was the chief minister who "took notice" of the growing filth and garbage in the city.

Addressing a special meeting convened to discuss the city's pressing issues, CM Murad Ali Shah directed the Sindh Solid Waste Management Authority (SSWMA) to cancel the contracts of those private firms that had failed to deliver, besides urging the local government department to remove inefficient and lethargic municipal commissioners from the DMCs.

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"This is unacceptable and I can't tolerate this inefficiency on the part of these officers," said the CM. The meeting was attended by Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani, Adviser to CM Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani, LG Secretary Khalid Hyder Shah, SSWMA Managing Director Dr Attar Das Sajnani as well as all six deputy commissioners of the city.

The chief minister said that the roads, though most of them have been reconstructed recently, present a dirty look because they were not swept properly. "Wherever I go, I see garbage lying on the roads and no officer, including municipal commissioners and deputy commissioners, bothers to take action," he said, adding that some trees had also been chopped down near the Clifton bridge in District South. "If anybody dares to cut a tree, they must be booked - I want to see them behind the bars," he said, directing the DCs to protect trees in their areas and plant as many trees as possible.

Cancel their contracts

Shah told SSWMA MD that he was unhappy with the performance of the firms engaged for cleanliness of District West. The performance of the private company hired to clean District South was also not up to the mark, he said.

He directed the LG minister to personally intervene and get the contracts of the firms engaged for sweeping, cleaning and lifting of garbage in the city cancelled at the earliest. He also directed the minister to start removing inefficient and lethargic municipal commissioners and officers. 'We don't need any officer who is not sincere with their work," he said.

The CM constituted committees under deputy commissioners to monitor sweeping and lifting of garbage. "I want this must be done at the sub-division level where assistant commissioners must be assigned to keep their areas neat and clean," he said, adding that the municipal commissioners of DMCs would be responsible to their deputy commissioner as far as the cleanliness work is concerned.

The meeting was informed that District Central was generating 2,200 tonnes of garbage, of which hardly 1,600 tonnes were transported to landfill sites. Similarly, District West generates 2,500 tonnes of garbage and hardly 1,000 tonnes are lifted.

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At this, the CM expressed displeasure and directed the relevant DCs to start lifting the garbage and procure the services of additional dumpers for removing the backlog.

Shah also directed Commissioner Shallwani to personally monitor the cleanliness efforts and start lifting the backlog of garbage. "I will start paying surprise visits to different areas of the city from the beginning of next week and will take strict action if any negligence is found," he warned.

Make it green

The chief minister also directed the commissioner, deputy commissioners and other local bodies' officers to start tree plantation drives in their respective areas. "The plantation of a tree is not enough.  The sapling must be protected and grown with proper care," he said.  

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2019.