Minister wants Chinese firm to clear District East of trash in 72 hours

The province’s local government minister has taken exception to a Chinese contracting company stopping garbage disposal work in District East of Karachi on the pretext that the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) has stopped paying them.

Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Sindh Information and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani jointly chaired a meeting on Tuesday to review the work done by the Chinese company contracted by the SSWMB to carry out sanitation work in District East of the city.

The LG minister directed the officials concerned that the Chinese company should, in the next 72 hours, clear the backlog of the garbage created in the areas falling under District East after the firm stopped working.

He said the Chinese company should continue carrying out its garbage disposal work in District East of the city in accordance with the contract it had signed for the purpose with the SSWMB. He assured the officials of the Chinese company that most of their arrears would be cleared within a week.

Officials of the Chinese company informed the meeting that they had been facing acute shortage of finances for the payment of salaries to their sanitation staff, bearing fuel expenses of vehicles and other expenditures to carry out sanitation work due to the undue delay in payments by the SSWMB.

The meeting was informed that the Chinese contracting firm, according to the agreement, was being given 50 per cent of its payment by the SSWMB this month while the remaining would be made after due scrutiny of its work in two months’ time.

The officials of the Chinese firm said they had been facing acute shortage of funds, claiming that the scrutiny of their work had stopped four months ago. In such a situation, they said, the staff members of the firm had stopped working due to the non-payment of their salaries.

The LG minister said on the occasion that the problems of the Chinese firm working in District East of the city would be resolved on a preferential basis, but the firm on its part should also ensure that cleanliness work being done by it should continue.

He said that any issue in this regard was supposed to be resolved through mutual discussion with the officials concerned. He added that any officer or supervisor of the company would be taken to task if they stopped working on the pretext of non-payment by the SSWMB.