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Tuesday March 19, 2024

KMC’s failure tantamount to Sindh government’s failure: mayor

By M Waqar Bhatti
September 27, 2017

The mayor said on Tuesday that he wished that the city could be cleaned, but the municipal body lacked resources while the Sindh government was a poor planner.

Waseem Akhtar warned that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) failure would mean the Sindh government’s failure because the municipal body was the third tier of and subordinate to the provincial administration.

Akhtar said if the KMC were to succeed, then it would mean the Sindh government had also succeeded, but if the municipal body were to fail, then it could be considered a failure of the provincial administration as well.

“I want litter and garbage to be removed from Karachi and to make it a neat and clean city, but the KMC lacks resources,” the mayor told a news conference at the press club when asked what the municipal body was doing to dispose of garbage and improve the hygienic condition of the city.

He said the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board was a provincial government department, but the government had assigned the task to the district administrations when the elected local government representatives were helpless in improving the sanitation and hygienic conditions in the metropolis.

“But, unfortunately, the planning of the provincial government has failed and the city has become a large heap of garbage. We are trying our best to improve this situation and it is the responsibility of the Sindh government to help us in doing so.”

Responding to a query regarding provision of Rs8 billion to the KMC by the Sindh government, Akhtar claimed that the money was provided to the administrators for the financial year 2016-17, when he was not the mayor, adding that no public scheme was approved since he took over the post.

He said the city lacked an effective fire-fighting system, as many of the fire engines were broken, the equipment was old and outdated and the entire department was in need of a complete overhaul to deal with emergencies and fierce fires.

“Even the conditions of hospitals run by the KMC are not good, as the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, which is the third largest hospital in the city, lacked oxygen supply when I first visited the facility after being elected as mayor.”

He admitted that the conditions of KMC-run hospitals were quite poor and that everybody was aware of the situation. “To improve things in Karachi, we need the support of the Sindh government. I urge the provincial administration to extend us financial support to serve the people.” He said he was trying his best to improve the financial situation of the KMC and to generate revenue, but “we need immediate financial support from the provincial authorities”.