HYDERABAD: Retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim, head of Supreme Court-mandated commission on water and drainage, on Saturday observed that he was not happy with the performance of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Qasimabad municipal committee and ordered inquiry into widespread uncleanliness in Rani Bagh and its zoo.

Justice Muslim said during a visit of the city’s lone major recreational spot that he would be compelled to pass some orders in larger public interest. He was visibly shocked over shabby condition of Rani Bagh that housed a zoo, a sprawling Abbas Bhai park and a play-land area which was developed at a cost of Rs150 million in 2008.

He found pond of artificial lake dry and asked chief municipal officer of Qasimabad municipal committee Hatim Mallah about it, who replied that the pond had seepage problem which was being addressed. Seventy per cent area of Rani Bagh was spread over 54 acres which was attended and the remaining 30pc was left unattended, he said.

Justice Muslim expressed displeasure over garbage being burnt in the zoo and asked the zoo’s contractor who had been winning the contract for four years but he failed to offer any plausible explanation.

Accompanied by Mayor Tayyab Hussain, Commissioner Abbas Baloch and Deputy Commissioner Aijaz Shah, Justice Muslim also visited Abbas Bhai park’s famous ‘baradari’ portion where he found, to his great annoyance, stinking water and garbage in fountains.

The commissioner told the judge that the district administration could easily take care of Rani Bagh with the existing staff and the budget allocated by Qasimabad municipal committee.

Inquiry ordered

Justice Muslim ordered Sindh secretary of local government (LG) to conduct an inquiry into the affairs of the recreational park and submit a report to the commission within seven days regarding cleanliness within and outside the zoo.

He said the secretary should look into the idea whether maintenance of Rani Bagh and the park needed to be transferred to the district administration. If the government were to decide the handover then the municipal employees be placed at the disposal of administration and funds be transferred too, he said.

Justice Muslim said addressing the mayor that he was unhappy with the performance of HMC and Qasimabad municipal committee. As far as cleanliness was concerned, they might have limitations but it did not mean that public interest was compromised, he said.

He asked mayor, commissioner, DC, municipal commissioner and CMO to sit together and formulate a policy in this regard and if they failed the commission would be forced to pass orders in larger public interest.

Earlier, Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) managing director Agha Abdul Rahim and additional MD Saleemuddin informed the commission in their signed report that they needed to retain 977 workers out of 1,604 daily wage workers. The report was sent to LG secretary to take a decision after perusing it and inform the commission in seven days.

Justice Muslim said the employees, who were demoted following an inquiry conducted on the orders of the commission and who met him outside judges’ lodge on Friday, might file a representation to a higher forum after the LG secretary declined to hear them on the ground that he could not review his order.

He said the LG secretary should send their representation to a competent authority in conformity with rules and pass appropriate orders on it. If they still felt aggrieved they might approach an appropriate forum, he said.

The commission was aghast at misstatement made by sub-engineer of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Mr Zakir, regarding operation of four ultra-filtration plants set up by LUMHS in LUH Jamshoro and city branches, and directed him to appear before the commission on Nov 13 with an explanation.

Dr Murtaza Arain, member of a task force formed by the commission, informed the judge over phone that the plants were not properly installed. There were no connections for inlet and outlet pipes and the pipes that had been fixed were leaking. Dr Arain disputed Mr Zakir’s statement that plants were ready.

Justice Muslim was surprised to know that Rs3m had been spent on civil work of the plant while total cost of the plants was Rs2.9m. The plants were donated by LUMHS on the commission’s directives.

He said the sub-engineer informed that entire work had been done as per drawing given by public health engineering officials and ordered inquiry to fix responsibility in this regard.

He asked LUH’s medical superintendent to ensure that plants worked round the clock to facilitate public and patients and directed the commissioner to monitor the plants’ functioning. The MS and the additional MS would be held responsible if anything went wrong with the plants, he warned.

Meanwhile, the judge handed over a copy of Sindh High Court order regarding traffic issues to Hyderabad senior superintendent of police, directing him to ensure smooth flow of traffic in the city and around LUH in particular.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2018