KARACHI, April 2: An NGO, Shahida Welfare Trust, has demanded that consumer-protection courts (CPCs) be established so that the common people could get their grievances regarding civic amenities redressed through them.

Speaking at a press conference at the Press Club, on Tuesday, the SWT chief, Shahida Kauser Farooq, further demanded that judges be posted in environmental protection courts so that these could become operational.

She said that though the people paid various taxes and utility bills on time, they were not being provided basic civic amenities that was their right.

Highlighting the grievances of the people, she said that the people were not getting enough pure drinking water, the pipelines were leaking, sewers remained choked resulting in overflowing sewage inundating the streets, roads were in a dilapidated condition, electricity supply was disrupted with regular breakdowns, etc.

The SWT chief said that the utility agencies, due to departmental inefficiency, usually sent average bills for many months and then all of a sudden sent an enormous bill based on actual meter-reading. The poor cannot pay such a high sum and the facility is disconnected and people’s hardships increase. She demanded that correct bills be sent to customers so that they can make the payments easily.

She also said that the bureaucrats sitting in the agencies and responsible for providing these facilities were least interested in solving the problems of the masses. She demanded that consumer-protection courts be established so that the aggrieved people could move these court, which in turn could call the representative of the agency concerned, hear their point of view and resolve the issue.

Citing the issue of environmental pollution, she said that smoke-emitting vehicles generating high levels of noise were responsible for various ailments among the citizens. She said that though environment-protection courts had been set up, no judge had been posted, so the citizens were not able to get redressal of their grievances.