CM cracks the whip on sanitation

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has given the relevant authorities a seven-day deadline to implement the Suthra Punjab beat system across the province, ordered the removal of underperforming private sanitation companies and directed officials to ensure payment of outstanding dues to the workers.

Chairing a meeting to review the programme on Tuesday, the chief minister sought a comprehensive micro-plan for cleanliness and a province-wide progress report by next week.

She also directed officials to ensure that the required workforce and machinery were available within a week.

It was decided that companies showing performance below 80 per cent in any tehsil would be issued warnings, while the contracts of those scoring below 50% would be terminated.

CM Maryam Nawaz ordered activation of government-run sanitation operations within a week as an alternative to services provided by non-performing private contractors.

The chief minister stressed that sanitation workers must not suffer because of unpaid dues from contractors.

It was agreed to recover outstanding payments from defaulting contractors and the officials were directed to devise a legal mechanism to ensure timely payment of workers' salaries and arrears.

The CM said workers would not be made to bear the contractors' failure to fulfil their financial obligations.

The chief minister ordered the submission of detailed weekly reports from every tehsil, covering human resources, machinery deployed under the beat system and field monitoring.

The participants were informed that the new system was intended to strengthen monitoring and service delivery.

The CM ordered that rural areas be cleaned at least on alternate days and accumulated garbage be removed without delay. The assistant commissioner and Suthra Punjab programme in-charge in each tehsil will be responsible for failures in cleanliness arrangements.

The system of waste collection and transportation was also reviewed and a proposal considered to introduce a mobile application for Suthra Punjab workers to improve monitoring and performance.

Officials said anti-littering squads were active in every division of Punjab and had conducted about 264,000 visits so far. The squads issued warnings for violations of sanitation standard operating procedures and spread awareness about waste disposal.

The CM reviewed cleanliness reports from various tehsils and praised the Chakwal administration for improvement in the district.