HYDERABAD: In his compliance report, the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) managing director (MD) here on Thursday informed a division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) Hyderabad circuit that a policy regarding issuance of licence for service stations would be placed before the court on next date of hearing as the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) director general had formed a committee to formulate the policy.

He stated that an operation for disconnecting illegal connections of service stations had been launched while FIRs had been lodged against some service stations and more were under process.

He said that among other measures, restructuring of the HDA/Wasa and establishment of police station in the HDA for taking cognisance of offences under the HDA Act were planned.

Ayaz Tunio, Wasa MD’s counsel, submitted the report before court which adjourned the matter to Jan 14, 2020.

The MD filed report in connection with a previous order of the court passed in a public interest litigation of Sajjad Ahmed Chandio advocate, who is appearing in person. He filed the petition on question of water supply and connections by Wasa.

The MD has stated that for disconnection of water supply to illegal service stations, the deputy commissioner of Hyderabad has been requested through an Aug 21 letter to provide assistance of police force and magistrate to Wasa. The additional deputy commissioner-II has written a letter to the SSP of Hyderabad and assistant commissioner on Aug 27 to provide assistance to Wasa.

Out of about Rs4,166.306m released to Wasa by the Sindh finance department, the MD said, Rs1,580.053m was released to Hesco for electricity charges. An amount of Rs513.950m was used for rehabilitation of filter plants and laboratories as per directives of the water commission while Rs2,046.964m was released for payment of salaries, pensions, gratuity and commutation to employees of Wasa.

He added that the amount of salary for period in question came to Rs5,193.122m, including Rs3,146.157m (60.58pc) paid from Wasa’s recoveries and the remaining Rs2,046.965m (39.42pc) were for government’s releases.

He said that a control/complaint centre was established by the district administration on Aug 7, which was widely published for awareness of general public. A complaint centre with exclusive portal has been established in the office of the Wasa MD with a counter where direct complaints about malfunctioning of sewerage or water distribution system would be received.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2019