0
KARACHI, Dec 29: The local government system, which President Pervez Musharraf’s government had launched with a fanfare about one-and-a-half years ago, does not present any rosy picture as far as cleanliness condition is concerned at least within the limits of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town.
In contrast to the Gulberg Town, where City Nazim Naimatullah Khan and other top brass of the city government live and where the situation has improved and various beautification drives have been initiated with installation of fountains and introduction of home garbage picking-up facility, the Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town and its union councils have failed even to maintain cleanliness on roads.
The old practice of the disappearance of sweepers and their supervisors has returned, as result garbage is being dumped alongside traffic islands. The sweepers, who were given the job to collect garbage from door- to-door and clean the streets every day, have altogether disappeared.
Even main arteries, like Allama Shabbir Ahmed Usmani Road, Abul Hasan Ispahani Road - from the University Road to the ex-octroi post on the Superhighway - have become unmotorable.
This main artery, on which hundreds of private and public transport vehicles pass daily, has also been serving as an alternative road for the traffic going towards the airport from the F.B. Area and the Superhighway.
The local government seems to be more interested in reconstruction of traffic islands than recarpeting and repairing the busy roads and linking arteries. Likewise, the plantation drive has also completely failed.
Maintenance of lights on roads, which are also within the purview of the local government, remains unattended. Many electric poles in the streets in Block 4-A are without bulbs.
The menace of stray-dogs continues to be a threat to children and the elderly alike, particularly at night due to the lack of streetlights.
The garbage collection system has been left at the mercy of the sweepers who roam in the area and charge money from the residents at will while sewage lines have been overflowing.
WATER SHORTAGE: Over 20 houses in Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s Block 4-A have been experiencing acute water shortage for the last two years.
According to the residents, around two dozen houses in the Society’s Row No 15, from House No A-46, either often remain without water for months or whenever water supply is restored it continues hardly for 20 minutes.
Claiming that water to their houses was usually supplied from 9am to 9.25pm as against the normal supply timings — from 9am to 1pm — a resident of the locality said that although they had lodged a number of complaints with the concerned officials, the issue has not been resolved yet.
“Though we have been bringing the issue into the notice of the concerned executive engineer for the last two years and have also lodged a complaint with the Nazim of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town on Nov 15, 2002, all our efforts have gone in vain,” the residents said.
Complaints about persisting water shortage continued to pour into newspaper offices from different sprawling townships of former district West and Central.
The hard-hit areas included different sectors of North Karachi, Orangi, Baldia, Surjani, Shershah and Site industrial area.
Meanwhile, the entire Federal B. Area and North Nazimabad would go dry on Monday. Water supply to these areas would be suspended as part of the city government’s plan to divert Indus water to the localities hooked to the Hub dam’s dried reservoir.
