City government fails to live up to clean-Eid claims

CDGL unable to clear the city of the offal following slaughtering of animals and dumping of waste on roadsides.


Sher Khan November 20, 2010

LAHORE: The city district government of Lahore (CDGL) remained unable to clear the city of the offal following slaughtering of animals and dumping of waste on roadsides.

Khalil Ahmed, a driver, said that both banks of the Canal near The Mall were lined up with animal waste. He said the stench had made travelling on the road difficult.

Jamal Ahmed, a Gulberg resident, complained about animal waste disposed of on main roads in Dharampura. “People were slaughtering animals on main roads. There was no official present to check the practice,” he said, adding, that it was ironical that people disregarded Islam’s injunctions about cleanliness while performing one of its mandatory rituals.

The administration had imposed Section 144 and proclaimed animal slaughter and disposal of the waste on the roadsides a crime.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Rafique Jatoi, the Solid Waste Management director, said that the SWM’s planning for the disposal of animal waste had been adequate. He added that the SWM had appointed workers on all underpasses at the Canal to clear waste.

Yet, Jatoi admitted that the imposition of Section 144 had remained ineffective as a deterrent.

He said it was reflected in the inability of the Town Municipal Officers to stop people from burning animal heads and trotters on roadsides.

Jatoi said that the bags distributed by the SWM for the disposal of offal were not sufficient for the number of animals slaughtered in the city. “Around 300,000 animals were sacrificed in the city. The SWM had only 150,000 bags to distribute,” he said.

The real issue, he maintained, was educating people about the working of the SWM. He said that they should be told through longer public awareness campaigns about where to slaughter the animals and where to dump its waste.

A sanitation worker, who had performed duties during the Eid holidays, also said that people needed to share the responsibility with the SWM for the effective disposal of waste. “If they keep ignoring rules and continue to dump animal waste in front of their homes and on roadside, we can’t keep the city clean irrespective of how much effort we put in,” he said, adding that sanitary workers had performed duties around the clock without being paid overtime.

Gulberg’s Town Municipal Officer Zubair Aslam held that there were some shortcomings but insisted that the city administration’s performance had improved over the previous years.

“It is difficult to remove waste from neighbourhoods with narrow streets. Some areas may have been overlooked by the officials but generally waste disposal was satisfactory,” he said.He said that he had personally imposed fines and confiscated welding torches etc used by people caught burning hair on animal heads and trotters on roadsides.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20th, 2010.

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