HYDERABAD: Centre not supporting Sindh govt: adviser: Environmental issue
By Our Correspondent
HYDERABAD, Nov 15: The adviser to the Sindh chief minister on environment and alternate energy and information technology, Noman Saigal, has criticized what he called unfair attitude by the federal government to environmental issues of the province and said his department had not received a single penny for any foreign-funded environment-related projects from the centre.
He was talking to journalists at the circuit house here on Monday.
He said that because of delaying tactics of the federal government his department could not get a Rs120 million project of capacity building from the United Nations Development Programme under which offices of the Environmental Protection Agency were to be established and staff was to be appointed.
He said that so far environmental tribunals had not been established in Sindh.
Mr Saigal said the federal government had also not taken his department on board regarding a windmill project in Thatta which was to begin in December this year but had been delayed. He said the matter had been taken up at the Sindh governor and chief minister level with the federal government but to no avail.
He added that 10 environmental inspectors had also not been appointed.
“I am constrained to say that we did not get support of the federal government for a single penny. We are trying to revive the UNDP project for capacity building of the EPA, Sindh, which has been delayed by the central government,” he said.
He claimed that the federal government also did not release sufficient funds to NGOs for different projects. “For instance, when we sent a scheme of Rs200,000, we only got Rs50,000 and for another project we got Rs400,000 against our demand of Rs3 million,” he said. All these schemes remained ineffective, he added.
The adviser maintained that some World Bank projects of clean air were also not given to the Sindh EPA for execution whereas some projects of green belts and environmental awareness among public could also not be executed.
He disclosed that a recent study for assessment of water quality in 18 towns of Karachi and majority of cities of the province by the Sindh EPA proved that water being supplied to people was not fit for human consumption.
He said a Rs40 million project for checking standards of smoke-emissions of vehicles in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur cities would be executed by the Sindh EPA.
Mr Saigal said a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed between the Sindh government and the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission for a pollution control project under which schemes of technical assistance would be prepared for determining different kinds and trends of pollution in cities.
He said a Rs500 million scheme to facilitate investors and importers of CNG buses in Karachi was also being launched so that investors could get some relief in terms of custom duty on buses. He said the amount would be released to the Sindh government soon.
The adviser said his department had formed an advisory committee for proposing different projects after detailed studies. He said some of the projects were being executed.
He said the committee, comprising intellectuals, parliamentarians, engineers, experts of different fields, businessmen, scientists and representative of SUPARCO, had designed different projects for departments concerned for execution.
He pointed out that the Sindh cabinet was being moved to approve a law under which a project of over Rs500 million would not be executed unless its Environment Impact Assess-ment (EIA) was prepared. He said it was necessary that the law was enacted because various projects of sugar mills, cement factories and fly-over were executed without EIA. He said major oil exploration companies were conducting EIA in their fields before launching projects.
Mr Saigal said an information technology office, having 40-member staff, had also been approved in the district government after Rs500 million had been earmarked in the provincial budget. He said 13 IT centres had been set up in the province to offer IT education to poor students.
