Sindh passes the buck on nullah cleaning
Shifting the responsibility for cleaning the city's drains to the local government institutions, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani claimed on Thursday that garbage removal from nullahs was neither the Centre's job nor the provincial government's.
He expressed these views while addressing a joint press conference with Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Sindh Food Minister Hari Ram Kishori Lal.
"The responsibility, in fact, lies with the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and district municipal corporations," maintained Ghani, adding that even then, the Sindh government had taken the initiative for cleaning the city's nullahs in a "systematic manner," despite the delay in the release of funds promised for the purpose by the World Bank (WB).
"We haven't received a single dollar from the WB thus far," the minister claimed. "As a result, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had to release special funds for the task."
In response to business community leader Siraj Qasim Teli calling for Karachi's handover to the Pakistan Army for at least five years for infrastructural improvement, Ghani, implying Teli's duplicity, said that he had given an impression of having a good alliance with the Pakistan People Party a months ago.
"He held a press conference with the CM in this very auditorium and lauded the Sindh government's work, but he changed tune within a month, calling for handing over Karachi to others," the minister criticised.
Claiming that the Sindh government had performed better than the Centre and the other provinces in the last two years, Ghani asked why no one was raising questions about those who had created the sugar crisis and supported wheat hoarders, damaging the country's economy.
'Sindh faring better than others'
In the same vein, the local government minister accused the Centre of laying the blame for its own failure with regards to the wheat shortage as well as its "shortcomings and incompetence" in the wheat sector on the Sindh government.
He pointed out that not only had Sindh met its wheat procurement target, but it also had the foresight to allow flour mills to store the produce for a period of three months.
"As a result, there is no shortage of wheat in the province and the crop is available at reasonable rates, even without a subsidy," he added.
Echoing these views, Sindh Flour Mills Association president Chaudhry Muhammad Yousuf commended the steps taken by the Sindh Food Department and said its decisions were "in the interest of Sindh and people across the country."
Besides, he noted that Punjab, despite producing wheat on 76 per cent of its land, was facing difficulties "due to its wrong policies." The Punjab government restricted wheat procurement and now, notwithstanding a daily subsidy of Rs50 million, it was unable to contain wheat prices, he said.
Further commenting on the matter, Nasir said that many believed the wheat crisis in the country was a consequence of "the federal government conniving with wheat hoarders."
Published in The Express Tribune, August 7th, 2020.