KARACHI, June 23: In its bid to persuade the city’s inhabitants to happily accept the newly levied “public utility charges” and pay them regularly, the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has planned a “special cleanliness drive” in all the 18 towns of the metropolis.

The City Council has already approved the proposal to levy the new tax, introduced following an agreement with a Chinese firm that has been awarded a contract of lifting and disposing of domestic waste from households on a daily basis. The period of the contract is 20 years. The firm was supposed to launch its operation on April 1, 2008 but the plan could not be meterialised for some undisclosed reasons.

Recently, City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal had asked all town nazims to launch a sanitation campaign in their respective jurisdictions to improve the overall state of cleanliness in the city. He also promised to provide every possible assistance and support to the town administrations for the lifting and disposal of solid waste.

Sources told Dawn that collection of the public utility charges was in the ambit of the Chinese firm but due to a delay in the launching of its operation, the city government had chosen to undertake the tax collection on its own for the time being. The responsibility would be transferred to the Chinese firm once it launched the operation, they added.

Regarding the rationale for the proposed special cleanliness drive, the sources argued that the CDGK might be apprehensive about its ability to convince people to pay the new tax without offering anything in turn. They were of the view that that a massive cleanliness campaign could be helpful in this regard and the CDGK wanted to ensure success of the drive before it issued the monthly bills to households to collect the public utility charges.

The households would receive the first bills showing the public utility charges in August and the amount would be for the previous month, they added.

EDO of the Municipal Services Masood Alam told Dawn that the Chinese firm was likely to launch its operation on August 14. He said that the special cleanliness drive was part of the town administrations’ continuous efforts to beautify the city. He said his department was extending all out cooperation and full support to the town administrations in the lifting and disposal of solid waste.