KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Saturday informed the Sindh cabinet of a Rs400 billion ambitious plan to ensure provision of clean drinking water and safe environment to the people of Sindh in compliance with the directives of the Supreme Court.

Officials said a meeting of the Sindh cabinet was held here at the CM House to share the improvement of existing water and sanitation system and future endeavours planned by the government.

Mr Shah said he held six consecutive meetings with all departments concerned in which facts and figures were analysed and a report was prepared for submission in the apex court hearing a petition on provision of potable water in Sindh.

A 132-page report will be submitted before SC; three names for new IGP finalised

Mr Shah told the cabinet the 132-page report contained 381 annual development programme’s schemes of water supply and sewerage system.

He said that the report was stuffed with district-wise reports in which all points had been identified from where municipal, hospital and industrial sewage was discharged to ultimate source of clean drinking water. Besides, it had summaries of hospital waste treatment and industrial effluent treatment in all districts, he added.

The CM said that the report also contained a summary of proper sewerage system along with treatment plants with proper source of discharge in all districts. The list of district-wise sewerage schemes for rural areas of Sindh had been included in the ADP, he said.

Mr Shah told the cabinet members that a component-wise physical and financial progress of the Greater Karachi Sewerage Plan S-III, details of five combined effluent treatment plants projects, details of Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme, K-IV phase-I of 260 MGD and a district-wise report showing the plans with their cut-off date for ensuring uncontaminated water for every district according to its population were also part of the wide-ranging report.

The cabinet was told on the implementation entire ambitious plan would cost around Rs400 billion.

The officials said that the cabinet discussed various points of the report and approved it for its submission before the apex court.

Three names finalised for new IGP

An additional item in the meeting vis-à-vis appointment of a new chief of the Sindh police was also taken up in the meeting.

The cabinet was informed that the federal government had again sought for a panel of three officers of grade B-22 having more than two-year service to retire to choose from for the post of inspector general of police (IGP).

The cabinet chose Sardar Abdul Majeed, Arif Nawaz and Maher Khalid Dad Lak for new IGP and asked the relevant authorities to send their names to the federal government forthwith.

Relocation of ATCs

Another item taken up in the meeting was shifting of the antiterrorism courts from Clifton to the Karachi central prison. There are 33 ATC courts notified by the government, of them 27 courts are functioning and six are lying vacant.

The cabinet was told that the ATCs working at Clifton, near Bagh Ibne Qasim, were required to be shifted to the central prison where a “state-of-the-art and most secure building” had been established with a cost of Rs240 million to house such courts.

The chief minister said that it became quite hard to transport terrorists from jail to ATCs in Clifton for hearing. “This is why the provincial government on the request of judiciary has established ATC courts at Central Prison.”

CM Shah said the government would establish a grand library in the Clifton building after the relocation of ATCs. The cabinet also discussed the Sindh Industries Registration Act, 2017, which provided for registration and organised and planned growth of industries in the province.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2018