KARACHI, April 28: A three-tier system comprising the city government, town administrations and union councils is said to be responsible for the dissatisfactory state of cleanliness in the metropolis where the Muttahida Qaumi Movement backed Haq Parast group has been at the helm of affairs.
The failure of town and UC administrations to bring improvement in the state of cleanliness in the city invited the ire of MQM chief Altaf Hussain, who felt that the party might lose its vote bank due to unsatisfactory civic conditions.
Last week, Mr Hussain made it clear to all Haq Parast town and UC nazims that they are answerable to the City Nazim – a thing in sharp contrast to the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO) – and directed them to pay special attention to sanitation and bring improvement in it within a month.
Out of 18 town nazims, 14 belong to the MQM-backed Haq Parast Group.
Under the rules, towns and their nazims have to perform their functions independently and the Section 54-A (p) (iii) of SLGO says that the collection of solid waste and conveyance to transfer stations designated by the Town (excluding treatment and disposal of waste) is a function and power of the Town Municipal Administration. The function of the city government with regard to sanitation is limited to maintaining the landfill sites for treatment and disposal of the solid waste.
Sources said that several town nazims did not want to cooperate with the Mustafa Kamal-led city government on the cleanliness issue or any other matters, which forced Mr Hussain to intervene. The removal of two MQM-backed town nazims from their offices was also seen by many as an outcome of their failure to cooperate with the City Nazim in bringing improvement in the overall sanitary condition and other matters.
The MQM chief had held a special meeting in which he expressed his dissatisfaction over the state of cleanliness not only in Karachi but in Hyderabad. He directed all elected representatives belonging to the Haq Parast group to pay special attention to sanitation and gave them one month deadline to improve the situation.
After realising the need for a uniform policy, the city government took the initiative of cleaning the city by what its authorities claimed “assisting” the towns in the task as they believed that the state of cleanliness in the metropolis could only be improved through collective and coordinated efforts at the city, towns and UCs levels.
The City Nazim is supervising the ongoing cleanliness drive in the metropolis and recently he visited different city areas particularly the Liaquatabad and New Karachi towns from where the Municipal Services department had lifted thousands of tons of garbage and debris.
“We are only assisting the towns and not taking over their functions. We have created the Municipal Services department to improve not only the state of cleanliness in the metropolis but to also bring improvement in solid waste management, environment, fumigation and other tasks,” said Mr Kamal.
The city government procured 120 vehicles with a hefty sum of Rs720 million to improve sanitation at 38 major thoroughfares of the metropolis. At present over 8,000 tons of waste is generated in the metropolis on a daily basis but only 3,000 tons of garbage is transported to the landfill sites.
The nazim was hopeful that the state of cleanliness would be better in the metropolis within a few weeks while efforts were being made to resolve the problem of leftover garbage on a permanent basis.
