CM determined for cleaner province,orders crackdown against land-grabbers

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KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah said on Tuesday that the process of lifting garbage and cleaning the city has been started but “all the institutions have to extend their support to the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) so that they could perform to the best of their capacity purely in a modern and scientific way to serve the best interests of this city and its people.”

He stated this while presiding over a high-level meeting of SSWMB here at the CM House. The meeting was attended by the Minister for Local Government Jam Khan Shoro, Minister Information Nasir Shah, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Commissioner Karachi, Secretary Local Government, Managing Director (MD) SSWMB, Assistant Director Dr A.D Sajnani and divisional commissioners.

In a presentation given to the CM, the minister for the local government and MD SSWMB said that SSWMB was created for collection, transportation and disposal of solid waste in Karachi and other cities and towns of the province in an efficient, scientific and an integrated manner.

It is responsible for collection and disposal of solid and other waste including industrial, hospital and agricultural waste. Shoro informed: “Total waste generation of the city is about 12,000 tons per day, of which 9,000 tons of waste is generated in municipal areas including all District Management Councils (DMCs). The remaining 3,000 tons of waste is generated in areas of other civic administrative bodies such as six cantonment boards which include Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate (SITE) area, Karachi Port Trust (KPT) area, Pakistan Railways, Civil Aviation Area (CAA) and etc.”

He said the SSWMB had three basic components which include front-end collection, middle-end garbage transfer stations (GTS) and back-end services which are called landfill sites (LFSs). Currently, the transportation cost of solid waste management services is very high because the landfill sites are at a distance of more than 35 km from the city’s centre. This distance sometimes reaches up to 50 in the case of remote areas, he further added.

The meeting was told that two LFSs of 500 acres each, namely Jam Chakro site and Gaond Pass site, were available for the disposal of the solid waste being generated in the city. However, unfortunately, both the dumping grounds are deprived of the international standards of sanitation.

The CM directed the commissioner and Additional Inspector General (AIG) Karachi to start a crackdown against the land grabbers and report him. He also directed Director General (DG) Karachi Development Authority (KDA) to provide him with a detailed report about the land KDA has been able to reacquire from the land grabbers. “I want the vacated land to be used for squash courts, tennis grounds, parks and other recreational facilities”, CM said.

The CM constituted a committee under the minister for the local government along with the secretary local government and DG KDA. The committee has been tasked to make a plan to regain the possession of the land from the land grabbers, and also give recommendations in regard to the future use of the land. “If this is not done, the land grabbing would emerge again,” he said.

He further directed the committee to resolve all land issues of SSWMA.