05 February 2005	Saturday	25 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Feb 4: The City Nazim, Niamatullah Khan, has set up six monitoring committees to monitor the attendance of teachers and students of schools run by the city government , and prudent utilization of the school management committees' fund.

Three headmasters and headmistresses, and three representatives of the city government, have been included in each committee. A meeting of the committees was held at the Civic Centre on Friday to discuss improvement in the condition of schools.

It was also attended by the EDO education, Aijaz Ali Khan, Adviser to the city nazim on Education Naseem Siddiqi and others. Procedures and objectives for working of the committees were formulated in the meeting.

The committees were directed to pay special attention to proper constitution of SMCs, prudent use of funds, attendance of teachers and students, focussing on improving the standard of education, and making the examination system transparent, in the first phase.

The city nazim, Niamatullah Khan, meanwhile directed the education department to take priority measures for making the standard of education exemplary in schools and colleges, and augmenting the working of the said committees.

US FIRM: An American business delegation, in a meeting with the city nazim, Niamatullah Khan, on Friday, evinced interest in setting up a plant for producing energy from solid waste, and a water desalination plant at Port Qasim or Hawkesbay.

Mr Niamat, in the meeting held at the Civic Centre, said three other companies had evinced a similar interest. He said that investment on the basis of build, operate and transfer (BoT) would be encouraged in Karachi.

He briefed the delegation, led by Abul Abe Shah of the Quest Import International, Inc New York, about various uplift schemes in the city, adding that the city government was taking steps to set up five transfer stations for shifting solid waste to landfill sites in a well-planned manner.

He said advertisements would be published for inviting expressions of interest for these projects, so that both local and foreign companies could compete in a fair way. The nazim said that efforts were being made to introduce a tram system so that the city's traffic problem could be solved for good.

He added that there would be a ban on entry of other vehicles in congested downtown areas, and only trams would run there. The meeting was told that progress was being made regarding setting up of a 35-megawatt power plant near Dhabiji.

The plant, he said, would be run on gas; however, it could also be run on solid waste, he said, mentioning the city's daily production of around 12 tonnes of solid waste. EDO Investment Promotion Raeessuddin Piracha and others also attended the meeting. - PPI