KARACHI: A Sindh government campaign to clean up the provincial capital — dubbed ‘Clean My Karachi’ — is starting on Saturday in which over 600 dumper trucks, shovel machines and tractors and 4,000 workers will take part all over the city.

This decision was taken by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who was presiding over a meeting here on Friday to review arrangements made for the drive.

The chief minister said deputy commissioners had been provided Rs50 million each along with setting up of a temporary Garbage Transfer Stations (GTSs) in their area and the same garbage would be taken to landfill sites of Gondpas and Jam Chakro by the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board from the GTSs.

“What we have to do is to clean it once and for all and hand over the cleaned city to DMCs; they will have to maintain it further,” he added.

The deputy commissioners under the guidance of the chief minister have divided garbage lifting work on sub-division level where the provincial government has provided tractors, loaders, shovels, tractor trolleys and other machinery to deputy commissioners.

The chief minister directed Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Shah to involve all DMCs in the drive.

“I would visit each and every district and will meet chairmen and municipal commissioners in the respective areas,” he said and advised the LG minister to invite Federal Minister Ali Zaidi to visit along with him while adding that “I’ll take the mayor with me”.

He directed the deputy commissioners to try to continue lifting of garbage round the clock so that this gigantic task could be completed within 30 days.

The commissioners were asked to keep monitoring the dumping of garbage in the temporary GTSs so that they could be transferred to the landfill sites in time.

The chief minister tasked the local government minister to form a group of two ministers for each district to monitor the work.

The cleanliness drive will cover all districts — Korangi, Malir, Central, West, East and South.

The meeting was attended by the chief secretary, provincial ministers, city commissioner, local government secretary, all deputy commissioners and other officers concerned.

Chinese support for KCR

In a meeting with outgoing Chin­ese Consul General in Karachi Wang Yu, Murad Ali Shah urged the Chin­ese CG to continue support for the Sindh government for revival of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project.

“The project has been approved at China Pakistan Economic Corridor-related Joint Cooperation Committee meeting, but it was put on the back burner. Now, I want you to talk to your government to support the Sindh government to construct KCR,” he said.

Mr Yu said he would try his best for revival of the KCR.

The chief minister lauded the efforts of the outgoing consul general in implementation of the CPEC projects.

He also thanked the Chinese government for supporting Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir and raising voice against Indian atrocities in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2019