KARACHI: The Sindh cabinet on Saturday decided to approve through an assembly act regularisation of contract teachers who had passed the National Testing Service (NTS) test.

Simultaneously, the cabinet decided that a comprehensive education reforms bill would be presented in the assembly for improvement of overall education system in the public sector.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said the NTS-passed contractual teachers and the contract teachers of the University of Sindh were around 2,100. He added that under the recruitment rules, teachers would have to pass a test for regularisation.

The chief minister directed the chief secretary to prepare a comprehensive education draft bill in which reforms in the entire education system, including textbooks, educational environment in schools, capacity building of teachers, trainings, performance-based incentives in the shape of increments and promotions, in-service trainings and refresher courses and establishment of high standard teachers training academy on public-private partnership mode, etc, would be included.

The cabinet members said MQM-London chief Altaf Hussain ‘has been involved in anti-state activities’, thus, no building, playground, etc, should be named after him and such existing establishments be renamed forthwith. A list of such buildings was decided to be prepared.

The Sindh Welfare and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act-2017 was presented in the cabinet meeting.

The chief minister said animals had inalienable right to live in an environment which was free from abuse.

wildlife secretary Asif Hyder Shah said the proposed law would also made it illegal to cruelly beat, kick, ill-treat, override, overload, torture, infuriate or terrify any animal.

The cabinet approved the concept of the law and appreciated the efforts and formed a committee under local government minister as chairman to go through the draft and frame rules to get it passed in the assembly in the next session.

Merger of banks

About the merger of Summit Bank and Sindh Bank, the CM said Sindh Bank was established in 2011 by establishing its first branch in Naudero in which former president Asif Zaradri’s was the first inaugural account. The bank established 300 branches within its first three years. He said the merger would boost Sindh Bank’s business.

The meeting participants were told the board of Sindh Bank Ltd had already approved the merger of Sindh Bank Ltd with Summit Bank Ltd for which a swap ratio of 1:4.17 was determined — one ordinary share of Sindh Bank was approved to be issued for every 4.17 ordinary shares of Summit Bank.

Sindh Bank would have majority representation on the board of directors and dominant shareholding would continue to be held with the Sindh government.

Sindh Bank, as the surviving entity, would apply for the combined shares to be listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange through technical listing. The cabinet approved the merger.

Treatment plants

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah ordered the installation of 28 sewage treatment plants to treat industrial waste in nine districts of the province where untreated water was released into water bodies.

The meeting participants were told that the population of 21 districts, except Karachi, was 29,111,723, including 9,624,674 urban, which generated 100.454 million gallons per day [MGD] municipal, industrial and hospital sewage/waste and discharging it from 755 points into sources of clean water.

The districts where treatment plants would be installed for treating industrial waste included Sukkur, Jamshoro, Hyderabad, Benazirabad, Thatta, and Sujawal.

The meeting participants were told that the schemes for drainage and sewage treatment plants had been prepared. They would cost around Rs9,612.139 million to treat sewage water before releasing it into water bodies.

The chief minister approved installation of 28 sewage treatment plants to treat industrial waste in nine districts.

Regarding the Greater Karachi Sewerage Plan (S-III), the chairman of planning and development said it was Rs36.117 billion scheme to treat 460MGD waste water.

The chief minister said the water requirement for Karachi was 802.6MGD while the exiting supply was 650MGD. He added the existing sewage being discharged from the provincial capital was 460MGD which included 363MGD municipal, three MGD hospital and 94MGD industrial waste.

Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro said Treatment Plant (TP-1) Haroonabad with a capacity of 100MGD was being constructed with Rs5bn, TP-3 Mauripur was being upgraded with Rs3bn to treat 100MGD and the new TP-3 Mauripur was being established with the estimated cost of Rs13.018bn to treat 80MGD.

Mr Shah asked the MD of water board to start preparation for establishing a 100 megawatt power plant which should be completed within next two years.

Meanwhile, Mr Shah asked the KWSB chief to start negotiations with the relevant quarters for acquiring a rental power plant so that K-IV phase-II project could begin in 2019.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2017