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KARACHI, Feb 4: The Sindh government has decided to allow taxis and goods vehicles to operate in the whole province under a single permit.
The decision was taken on Monday at a meeting under the chairmanship of Governor Mohammedmian Soomro. The meeting, convened to review devolution process of transport and local government departments, took note of reports that during journey from one city to another, certain government functionaries were harassing drivers of taxis and goods vehicles.
It was decided that a single permit, sought on payment of a prescribed fee, shall be valid for plying the vehicles throughout the province.
The governor made it clear that no functionary shall be spared if found harassing the public. “The government is taking steps to provide relief to the common man, and for this purpose, discretionary powers of the government officials are being curtailed,” he added.
Reviewing the process of reorganization of the provincial transport authority (PTA) and the regional transport authorities (RTAs), it was decided that the PTA would continue to work under its existing setup, while the RTAs would be devolved to district level.
The RTA in Karachi has already started working under the city government.
The meeting also decided to set up regional transport authority boards in each district. The DCO will be the head of the board, while representatives from the private and public sectors will be included in the boards as members.
The meeting approved structure of the local government commission, constituted under the Local Government Ordinance 2001. It also discussed formation of urban development board. Provincial minister Dewan Yousuf Farooqui, principal secretary to the governor Akhtar Zamin, secretary finance Fazal Rahman, secretary communication and works Hifzur Rahman and other officials attended the meeting.
TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS: Meanwhile, presiding over another meeting to review developments in the IT technology projects, Mr Soomro stressed the need for spread of digital telephone exchanges so that the internet access is provided to far-flung areas.
The meeting was also attended by NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Dr Ata-ur-Rehman, Provincial Minister for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, besides officials of provincial and federal ministries.
The meeting decided to give representation in the Federal PEER Review Committee to all the provinces and the establishment of Software Technology Parks under private sector.
The NWFP governor stressed the need for projects on provincial level based on necessity and priority of the provinces and said that instead of selecting two districts in each province as IT model, provincial departments should be considered as models.
Dr Ata informed the meeting that a high-speed bandwidth would be introduced next week.—PPI
