0
HYDERABAD, May 25: The Sindh chief secretary informed the province's chief minister that irrigation officials did not check the quality of water supplied to people, a high- level meeting of provincial government officials was told on Tuesday.
The meeting had been called to look into how contaminated water was supplied to people, which resulted in deaths from gasdtroenteritis, a participant at the meeting told Dawn. The meeting was held with other officials from the district government, the Irrigation Department and Wasa at Circuit House.
At the meeting, Sindh chief secretary Dr Mutawakal Kazi told Chief Minister Ali Mohammad Mahar that Wasa and irrigation officials did not check the quality of water supplied to citizens.
The chief engineer Kotri barrage said that Sukkur barrage official released Manchhar Lake water into the Indus River every year, but this time sufficient water was not available in the river.
The district nazim repeated his proposal that a permanent committee comprising the district nazims of Hyderabad and Dadu and DCO of the two districts should be set-up to look into the issue whenever any discharge of water from the Manchhar Lake into the Indus river occurs.
FUNDS PROMISED: Sindh Chief Minister Sardar Ali Mohammad Mahar has promised funds to the district of Hyderabad regarding supply of contaminated water to parts of Latifabad taluka.
A delegation of union council nazims of Latifabad comprising Abdul Qadeer Qazi, Ibrahim Chishti, Ehsan Ahmed and others called upon the Sindh chief minister on Monday evening at Circuit House in connection with their protest over the supply of contaminated water.
District Nazim Dr Makhdoom Rafik Zaman was also present. Ibrahim Chishti, who has been raising this issue inside and outside the district council for the last several months, told the chief minister that people of Latifabad were consuming sewerage from Qasimabad taluka and urine of animals.
He said that they had been demanding a solution to their problem but without any result. He told the chief minister that the problem could be resolved soon if sincere efforts are taken. Chishti told Dawn on Tuesday that the chief minister assured them that their problem would be solved on priority basis.
He added the chief minister told the district nazim that he would release funds required to sort out the issue. The members had decided to raise their voice in Circuit House as they had walked out of the district council session on Monday.
SUGAR CESS: Meanwhile, the chief minister also assured the early release of sugar cess and share of octroi tax to old union councils of the rural areas, our Bureau reports. Mir Abdul Karim Talpur informed the House on Tuesday that the chief minister asked the DCO to look into the matter so that it may be resolved early.
RESULTS: Sindh University controller of examinations has announced the results of BA (Hons) part-I/II, MA International Relations previous/final (noon batch) semester 2003. He also announced the results of BCom (pass) part-I annual examinations 2003.
SAU FEE: The Sindh University of Agriculture has reduced the PhD admission fee from Rs10,000 to Rs1,000 and also decided to award a monthly scholarship of Rs3,500 to 20 PhD students on merit basis.
The decision was taken at the 64th meeting of the Board of Advance and Research Studies held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of vice-chancellor Dr Basheer Ahmed Shaikh.
