LAHORE: Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on Thursday visited various areas of the city and reprimanded the deputy commissioner and officials of the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) for poor cleanliness arrangements.

He took strict notice of the insanitary conditions on roads and directed the officials to improve the cleanliness arrangements. He expressed displeasure over the performance of DC Umer Sher Chattha and the LWMC officials and ordered removal of solid waste.

Later, the DC and LWMC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rafia Haider jointly visited the LWMC No-1 and 2 workshops, Sheranwala Gate, Fish Market, Urdu Bazaar, Railway Station and Garhi Shahu areas to review cleanliness arrangements. They checked the garbage collecting vehicles maintenance issues and found 400 of the vehicles in the field to lift the garbage.

LWMC CEO Ms Haider told Dawn that workshops were running in three shifts to keep machinery operational. She said some of the vehicles were being fixed while others were beyond repair.

Reprimands DC, LWMC officials

“Dedicated human resource workers working in fish market for cleaning and field workers’ attendance are being monitored through android attendance and field visits of top management,” she said.

She said fleet managers in place were working for effective route planning and cleaning operations and hot spot mapping was done in Data Ganj Bakhsh Town and Samanabad to monitor daily cleaning operations.

FOUNDATION STONE: The chief minister laid the foundation stone of the Sheranwala Gate flyover valuing Rs5 billion and announced that it had been named after Lahore’s patron saint Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh.

Paying tribute to the rich history, culture and traditions of the historic city of Lahore, the chief minister said Sheranwala Gate was situated in the periphery of historical places like Minar-i-Pakistan, Lahore Fort and the shrine of Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh to connect the new and old localities. He said parking plazas would be constructed in Lahore.

He said this fourth project was imperative to overcome traffic issues following Lala Shahbaz Qalandar underpass and under-construction Gulab Devi underpass and Shahkam Chowk overhead bridge. He said this government had completed development schemes worth billions of rupees in Lahore.

Mr Buzdar said a new sewerage line was being laid along Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh Flyover. He claimed that the government had saved Rs270 million through transparent tendering and added that some 130,000 vehicles would use this facility daily. He said the LDA would complete this project before time and parking plazas be constructed around Sherawala Gate, Masti Gate and Ek Moria Pul to park around 1,000 vehicles.

INTERIOR MINISTER: Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid called on Chief Minister Usman Buzdar at his office on Thursday.

Mr Rashid said he had met the chief minister to seek his time for the inauguration of Waqar-un-Nisa University in Rawalpindi and Nala Leh. “The chief minister will soon inaugurate both the projects,” Mr Rashid said.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2021