KARACHI, Aug 16: The city government will launch a ten-day cleanliness drive from August 22 to ensure cleanliness and beatification of the metropolis, City Nazim Naimatullah Khan said at a press conference on Friday.

He said the decision had been taken at a recent meeting of the advisory council, consisting of Towns Nazimeen, keeping in view the pathetic situation of the city in terms of sanitation and general cleanliness caused by gross neglect over the past several years.

Naimatullah Khan said a similar drive announced by him immediately after assuming charge of City Nazim had failed to take off due to a lack of infrastructure at the Town level, besides, he maintained, vehicles inherited by the city government were in a shabby condition.

He claimed that the city government has, so far, spent an amount of Rs40 million for improvement and purchase of heavy machinery and containers used in clearing and transportation of solid waste.

Expressing confidence in the planned drive, he said the main focus of attention would be cleaning of edges of roads and footpaths, planting of grass and plants at green belts and parks, improvement of streetlights and channelization of storm water drains.

Another important feature of the drive, he said, would be cleaning of the Clifton beach by schoolchildren. The city government will provide spray guns to union councils (UCs) to control breeding of flies and mosquitoes, he added.

However, it may be mentioned that there are 178 UCs in Karachi while the city government has only eleven sets of spray machines.

In response to a question, the City Nazim said the drive would be launched in municipal limits only, and not in the six cantonment areas or land owned by the Railways, Karachi Port Trust (KPT), Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) or any other federal or provincial agency.

Recounting the achievements of the city government during the last one year, he claimed that it had done a remarkable job in all fields, including controlling corruption.

He cited the example of the open auction of the Mauripur truck stand which was auctioned for the current year at Rs17 million compared to Rs3 million for the last year.

Expressing confidence in all the Town Nazimeen and elected representatives, he said they would form teams to monitor the progress of work in their areas. However, he said, this had nothing to do with the upcoming general elections as according to legal provisions “all of us have to be non-political as long as we are in office.”—PPI