‘Garbage transfer stations be made functional in a week’

The province’s chief secretary on Tuesday issued orders to officials concerned to ensure that all garbage transfer stations were made functional within a week.

The directives from Sindh Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon came during a meeting a meeting held at his office to review the affairs of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB). 

The CS, who presided the meeting, urged the SSWMB’s managing director to make sure that delegation of tasks was completed at the earliest so that the objective could be achieved in due time.

He advised the officers to consult with the commissioner and deputy commissioners of the city to resolve the issue of demarcating landfill sites. Memon said effective coordination among all administrative officials was essential to ensure smooth functioning of the garbage transfer system, particularly for overcoming problems such as removal of encroachments from land that was legally for the SSWMB’s use. 

The chief secretary told the officials that the anti-encroachment force of the Sindh Board of Revenue (SBR) was also at their disposal for operations to reclaim illegally occupied land from encroachers. 

Karachi Commissioner Aijaz Ahmed Khan, other deputy commissioners and relevant officials assured the meeting attendees of cooperation in all matters.  In a detailed judgement issued on March 24 this year on a petition about the provision of clean drinking water and a safe environment to the citizens of Sindh, a three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim had observed that if the SSWMB was allowed to exist, it would be a permanent liability for the provincial government. The court observed that report of the judicial commission on water and sanitation was a charge sheet against various government departments including the SSWMB which had failed to deliver even though its management was drawing millions of rupees in salaries.

The court observed that running a parallel organisation to perform the same function led to bad governance and a lack of responsibility and accountability, which was sadly the order of the day as clearly demonstrated from the material collected by the judicial commission and by viewing the recordings.

The court observed that experiments should come to an end now and the non-functional board which had never performed should be dissolved by transferring its functions to the local bodies as provided under the rules of business as by doing such exercise the woes of the residents of the province’s cities would be alleviated and it would also prevent the waste of public money.  

The court also ordered that the judicial commission would ensure compliance of its directives and also take steps to see that the task force formed by the Sindh government complied with the recommendations contained in the report.