KARACHI: The city of Karachi will be cleared of all sorts of encroachments and the parks, which are in poor condition, will be awarded to different parties under ‘adopt a park’ programme to develop and maintain them in order to restore the city’s beauty.

This was decided when City Mayor Waseem Akhtar with Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro called on Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at CM House on Wednesday.

They were also joined by Deputy Mayor Dr Arshad Vohra to sort out issues and discuss the plan chalked out for 100 days cleanliness drive.

Reassuring the mayor of his full cooperation, the chief minister said: “There is no issue of funds, I would arrange that for this city,” and added that service to the people of Karachi was above politics and party affiliations.

“This is my city as it belongs to other citizens and we all have to make it neat, clean and beautiful.

“There are a lot of issues in the city such as its roads are dilapidated, gutter lines are either broken or chocked, garbage lifting service is very poor and heaps of garbage are accumulating here and there. This I know because I keep visiting the city off and on to inspect the quality and pace of ongoing development works under the umbrella of Rs10 billion Karachi package,” the chief minister said.

Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar said that apart from these issues there were the problems of fire engines and snorkel trucks while the parks were in poor conditions.

“I have worked out a plan of 100 days of cleanliness in which small repair and maintenance works of roads, drainage and water supply lines would be carried out, if you (CM) extend helping hand,” he said.

Responding to the mayor, the chief minister said that he was always ready to support him and directed Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro to sit with the mayor and work out a plan to rehabilitate roads, water supply lines, improve drainage system and purchase fire engines and develop a mechanism to lift backlog of the garbage before the private firm starts lifting it from the DMCs areas and such other things which the mayor wanted to start.

“You just complete your exercise I would do the maximum for the people of Karachi,” he said.

The meeting participants decided to remove encroachments along the roads and bulldoze illegal constructions in different localities for which the Sindh government would provide Anti-Encroachment Force to the mayor.

They also decided that the parks which were in poor condition would be given to different parties under ‘adopt a park’ programme so that they could be developed for the interest for this city.

They also decided to award the maintenance contracts of snorkel trucks to their companies concerned.

“The local maintenance has created serious problems in the snorkel trucks,” said local government minister.

The chief minister said “we all have to work together for this city, I would give you maximum resources, technical and others support without any delay,” he said.

In a meeting with PPP MPAs Imtiaz Shaikh, Sajid Jokhio, Murtaza Baloch and District Council Karachi chairman Salman Murad at CM House, the chief minister told them that he was taking personal interest in the development of each and every district of the province.

“No district would be left undeveloped,” he said.

Speaking to them, the chief minister said that the main road from airport to Quaidabad and Steel Town was being reconstructed and the water supply and drainage lines were being replaced.

“The district council must identify the issues and give its suggestion and also play its due role in the uplift of rural Karachi and I am ready to help you whatever you need,” he said.

Published in Dawn December 15th, 2016