NAWABSHAH, Feb 14: Following an assurance by the chief secretary, Sindh, K. B. Rind, the Shehri Action Comm-ittee ended its protest on the fifth day on Thursday against the supply of contaminated water.

The chief secretary, who was at Sakrand to celebrate Eid, visited the protesters at the camp on Thursday.

The protesters including Syed Badar Shah, Syed Noor Mohammad Shah and Rao Faheem of the Shehri Action Committee and G. M. Shah of the PML-Q briefed the chief secretary about the supply of polluted water, sewerage system and garbage dumps in the city.

Mr Rind asked them to end their protest as their grievances would be resolved within 10 days.

He formed a 10-member committee headed by the DCO, Nawabshah, and directed the DCO, Taluka Nazim, and other officials to end the problem within a week.

He visited some parts of the town and issued orders for providing basic health care facilities.

Mr Rind was accompanied by the DCO, Abdul Qadir Mangi, and the DPO, Dr Sarwar Jamali.

The Taluka Nazim, Ali Akbar Jamali, told this correspondent that some people were trying to politicize the situation to gain cheap popularity and were pressing them to resign.

He said that the problem was genuine but there was paucity of funds and staff.

He said that work would start immediately and there would be improvement within 15 days as the chief secretary had promised for having funds released immediately.

He said that an amount of Rs10 million was due against the consumers on account of water tax.

He said that the union councils would collect water tax in future and 50 per cent of it would be spent on the union councils.