Islooites dismayed over sanitary condition of capital

Islamabad :Despite having the first-ever local body system in place, the federal capital is giving a shabby look due to stench emitting garbage heaps and overflowing sewers at its almost every market and bazaar.

The filthy markets of various sectors including G-6- , G-7, G-8, I-9, I-8, H-9 and others are contrary to the present government’s slogan of Clean, Green Pakistan due to bad sanitary conditions, civic agency inertia and lack of public awareness.

Markets like Melody, Sitara, Aabpara and Karachi Company have gradually lost their splendour where once residents of lower middle class thronged for food and shopping.

A number of shopkeepers also complained of declining business while criticizing the slackness of Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad (MCI).

“When the first-ever local body got elected in Islamabad, I was confident that the basic amenities would be provided to the residents but I was wrong,” Mukhtar Ali, a shopkeeper in Karachi Company market said while expressing his dismay over the prevailing hygienic and sanitary condition.

Pointing out the irregular visits of sanitary workers, he said they dumped waste within the market vicinity and burnt when it turned into small mound.

The move disturbed the customer influx due to pungent smell of the smoke, he added. Shair Gul, another shopkeeper at Abpara Market narrating the same story said he had lodged several complaints at different forums but to no avail.

Contrary to the ground situation, a senior official in Sanitation Department of the MCI claimed that the cleanliness drives were being carried out in every market of the city on regular basis.

He said the sanitation department was ensuring collection and disposal of garbage in Markaz of every sector of the capital city including sectors of G, H, I and F series.

The official said sixty per cent of the markets’ garbage comprised green waste and collection of such type of trash was not the responsibility of sanitation wing of MCI.

However, he said, now the department was lifting every type of garbage from the markets due to shortage of staff in other formations of the MCI. To a query, he said, some two years back the MCI had installed the waste bins in Jinnah, Super and Melody market, but they were removed by the shopkeepers.