People complain about poor cleanliness during Eid days

LAHORE :People living in majority of low-lying city localities kept waiting for civic bodies to lift animal waste from their areas during the three days of Eidul Azha. 

Residents of dozens of areas in Walled City of Lahore, Shadbagh, Bagh Munshi Ladhah, China Scheme, Green Town, Chandrai, Nonarian, Shera Kot and several other localities across Bund Road declared the cleanliness situation in their localities most disturbing in comparison of previous Eid days. 

Similarly, several residents of Chung, Thokar Niaz Beig, Kartar Road, Ali Town and many other localities said they waited for civic bodies to come and lift animal waste and garbage from their localities. 

Haroon Khan, a resident of Umer Chowk Township, said someone threw animal waste outside his shop, which remained there for several hours and despite repeated calls no one came to lift that. He claimed he hired two labourers to lift the waste.

Jamila Bibi, a resident of China Scheme, appealed the CM to visit her area without informing anyone and himself see the state of affairs. She said empty plots in the area were full of animal waste and no one lifted the waste for several hours.

Kaleemullah, a resident of Green Town, said a camel was slaughtered in his street and no one came to lift the organs. “After a wait of several hours, we threw it in a nearby ground,” he said, adding he also stopped a van of waste company and requested its staff to lift the waste, but the staff said to him that he should throw it in the waste bin and they will lift it from there.

On the other hand, a large number of citizens thronged public parks and other recreational places including Lahore Zoo, Cinemas, Lahore Fort and on Sunday to celebrate Eid with traditional festivity.

The third day of Eid was usually treated as a party day and majority of Lahorites used to visit public parks, Lahore Zoo, cinemas and other recreational places with their families to enjoy the holiday. During the day, a rush of people was seen at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Model Town Park, Nawaz Sharif Park, Race Course Park, Bagh-e-Jinnah, Safari Park, Lahore Zoo, Lahore Fort, Shalimar Garden, Jallo Park while in night the parking lots of city cinemas were found full.

The rush was observed at Lahore Zoo where people were unable to find a place to even park a motorcycle. Both the entrances of Lahore Zoo (one on The Mall and second on Lawrence Road) were packed with traffic and kept the traffic wardens on their toes. Zoo officials said over 150,000 people visited Lahore Zoo during Eid holidays. They said number of visitors at Lahore Zoo on first day of Eid is much lower than the remaining two days.

Like Lahore Zoo, Safari Park on Raiwind Road is also one of the busiest recreational places in the provincial capital. Long queues of vehicles were seen outside lion and tiger Safari areas and people have to wait for hours in their cars to get in. Birds arena also attracted a large number of visitors, especially families with children and small kids.

A number of families visited Fortress Stadium to enjoy big rides at Joy Land. Kids play lands having electronic swings, video games and other joy rides were also jam-packed. Ice-cream parlors, fast food restaurants, coffee shops and other eating spots also witnessed extraordinary rush of people during Eid holidays as many youth have called their friends to these places for get to gather and Eid Millan parties.

For the last some years, making BBQ at homes on third day of Eid has also become a new tradition of Lahore and many people used to invite their families and friends for homemade BBQ parties. The most popular BBQ recipes prepared in these parties are Beef Kebabs, Bihari Boti, Grilled Mutton Chops, Beef Tikka, Mutton Tikka, Malai Boti and etc. Following the trend, shops selling BBQ grills, charcoal grills, iron skewers and other BBQ preparing items were remained open even on Eid holidays. The prices of coal also shot up in the city and vendors charged Rs 100 per kg instead of the original price of Rs 40 per kg.

CM praises LWMC cleanliness operation: Meanwhile, the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) disposed record breaking 50-thousand tons of animal waste particularly offal during three days of Eid. Operation was backed by day and night working of more than 15 thousand sanitary workers, a total of 2,000 machinery including pickups and on toe support of Turkish Contractor Companies i.e. Albayrak and Ozpak. 

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has appreciated Solid Waste Management arrangements of the company during all days of Eid. The CM acknowledged day and night efforts of these dedicated workers who have sacrificed their Eid holidays and helped ensure clean environment for Lahorites to make them enjoy the eve but appreciation by us can serve them more than anything. 

During the press conference at Lakhshmi Chowk chaired by Chairman LWMC Col (Retd) Mubashir Javed, MD LWMC Bilal Mustafa Syed and known Film and TV Star Afzal Khan (Jan Rambo) it was briefed to the media that LWMC devised a comprehensive strategy to effectively collect and dispose of more than 50 thousand tons of animal waste collection of offal using two Million waste bags which were distributed among masses at Eid camps, Model Camps, shops, mosques and during door to door campaigns. Strategy also focused on swift and timely lifting of animal waste from streets engaging additional pickups and transportation of waste firstly to 116 temporary waste collection & transfer stations and later on to dump sites. 297 Eid camps established at Union Council level helped work in a better and well-coordinated way. Animal waste was dumped at specially established dumping points in an environment friendly manner covering it with soil and lime. Special arrangements were made at major slaughter houses by deploying workers and machinery there including mechanical washing applying phenyl, Dettol and Arq-e-Gulab.

Jan Rambo took part in LWMC activities during Eid days. He paid visit to multiple camps of LWMC and distributed waste bags among public. He swept roads of Walled City with LWMC sanitary workers in order to sensitise people. He washed Qurban Gagh (Jamiya Naemia). 

All operational activities were monitored in the state of the art Video Wall Monitoring room at LWMC head office, Video Wall Room set up in LWMC head office. Chairman LWMC Mubashir Javed, MD LWMC Bilal Mustafa Syed and other officials remained in the field during three days of Eid and monitored operations both from the control room and field areas. Operations were monitored by android based mobiles system and pictorial record was maintained and thousands of pictures were made available on the portal of Punjab Information and Technology Board. More than 16,662 citizens contacted LWMC via helpline 1139 for assistance and resolution of their waste related complaints, and 98 percent complaints were immediately responded and resolved and remaining was addressed before the concluding operation. According to LWMC spokesperson, LWMC administration has thanked citizens for exemplary cooperation during all days of Eid.