KARACHI, Oct 25: The City Council, on Saturday, passed a resolution demanding the city government to establish water testing laboratory for general public to prevent the spread of water borne diseases.

Terming the supply of contaminated water one of the most serious threats being faced by Karachittes, the council members highlighted the Landhi incident, in which nine precious lives were lost. The members said that similar type of incident had also occurred in Gadap Town. The resolution on the issue was moved by Abdul Aziz, Saeed Ghani, Razzaq Siddique, Raana Advocate, Shamim Wasi and others.

The session, chaired by Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan, passed different resolutions unanimously.

In the opening remarks, Muslim Pervez of Al Khidmat Group expressed concern over the incident occurred due to misconception in the house on Thursday. He called for maintaining sanctity of the house with better working relationship among members as to avoid any untoward incident in future.

Expressing grief over the suicide of five members of a family in Korangi on Friday, Mr Pervez moved a resolution demanding of the government to fulfil its responsibilities by providing jobs to people so that such kind of incidents could not occur in future. The resolution was passed unanimously.

Opposition benches criticized the city government for not implementing the recommendations of resolutions passed by house for the last two years. They informed that 355 resolutions had been passed so far, but no city government official had ever considered these resolutions.

Rehana Afroz drew attention of the house towards declining standard of government schools. She disclosed that Rs1,000 was being spent for each student in the government schools. However, no improvement had been witnessed so far, she added. She attributed the declining standard of schools to irregularities and embezzlements in the funds allocated for government schools.

Siddique Rathore of Al-Khadim Group drew attention of the house towards sacked employees of water board, who had been demonstrating outside the city council to be reinstated under the Supreme Court order. He said that despite the clear directives of the Supreme Court, the city government had not reinstated these employees so far and demanded for an immediate action in this regard.

The house also formed a committee to prepare report about the controversial matters of Plot No. 114 New Jail Quarters, which had been lingering on for quite some time. The committee was asked to submit the report on Nov 3.

Later, Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan adjourned the session till Nov 1. —PPI