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Commission tells CBC to clean Korangi Road drain within 12 days

By Our Correspondent
July 20, 2018

A Supreme Court-mandated judicial commission on Wednesday took notice of the failure of the relevant authority to remove garbage and debris from the drain along Korangi Road and directed the Cantonment Board Clifton to do the job within 12 days.

The commission’s head, Justice (retd) Amir Hani Muslim, issued this order during his visits to different places in Korangi, East, West, South and Malir districts. He was accompanied by the Karachi commissioner, heads of civic agencies, deputy commissioners and others.

He issued directives to the officers on the spot for the removal of heaps of garbage and encroachments, as well as for cleaning nullahs. The commission observed that the Korangi Road drain was full of filth and the area was also strewn with heaps of garbage, but the departments were passing the buck and avoiding their responsibilityes, which was not acceptable. A mechanism needed to be devised to ensure that the responsibilities of the departments could not be shifted, it said.

The former judge directed the Cantonment Board Clifton to clean the Korangi Road drain within 12 days. He confronted a representative of the District Municipal Corporation Korangi about the installation of heavy billboards with structures on the roofs of shops and the lane adjacent to Koragni Road, a problem for which he had no plausible explanation.

It observed that billboards were to be removed under the orders of the Supreme Court which the DMC Korangi failed to do so. He also took notice of the construction raised in the service lane along Korangi Road and observed that construction material, including iron bars and construction machinery, was lying outside the premises. He also issued a show-cause notice to the director general of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) as why action should not be taken against him for willful defiance of the directives of the commission.

The commission directed the SBCA to ensure that no construction material be allowed to put outside the premises or the building and all the debris be removed forthwith in the entire city.

Justice Muslim also visited Korangi Industrial Area and 8000 Road and also found debris lying, which prima facie had been thrown by industries during construction work.

He directed the SBCA and the Karachi commissioner to ensure the removal of debris from roads and drains. It observed that the main drain along 8000 Road was claimed to have been cleaned by the KMC, but still solid waste and plastic bags were lying floating in it.

The commission observed that there was no regular system of cleaning all these roads and the lanes for which till such time that the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board took over the DMC Korangi, there was need for a plan for cleaning and removing the debris and solid waste.

Justice Muslim directed the District Municipal Commissioner Korangi to remove the solid waste and debris within one week.

He directed the director general of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency to provide a list of industries in Korangi Industrial Area along with details confirming whether treatment plants and or septic tanks had been installed in those factories. The municipal commissioner informed the commission’s head that these industries threw solid waste/chemicals in the open drain along 8000 Road and in this respect one of the industrialists was caught red-handed.

The commission warned the industries not to throw chemicals or solid waste into the drain or in the lanes.