Chinese firms warned of legal action if they fail to dispose of garbage

Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani has warned Chinese companies operating in Karachi to collect and dispose of garbage of action according to the law of the land if they fail to do their job effectively.

He was reviewing the cleanliness situation in the city in a meeting at his office on Wednesday. According to a press statement from the commissioner office, the meeting also discussed how the Chinese contractors performed in the month-long cleanliness campaign carried out by the Sindh government recently.

Managing Director Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) Asif Ikram, the deputy commissioners of all the districts municipal commissioners of all the district municipal corporations (DMCs) were part of the meeting.

Representatives of the both Chinese companies, Changyi Kangjie Sanitation Engineering Company and Hangzhou Jinjiang Sanitation Services, were also present in the meeting.

The SSWMB managing director and the deputy commissioners of South, East and Malir, where these companies are functional, briefed the commissioner about the non-implementation of their contract. They explained that the companies were not fulfilling their responsibilities with regard to garbage-lifting and disposal in their districts for which they had been hired for.

Changyi Kangjie Sanitation Engineering Company was given a contract for East and South districts in January 2017. Later, Malir and West districts awarded the contract to Hangzhou Jinjiang Sanitation Services in 2018. In August this year, the board terminated the firm’s contract for District West for failing to do the job satisfactorily. The same firm, however, continues to do its job in the Malir district. In Korangi and Central districts, the DMCs are responsible for garbage collection and disposal.

The commissioner, in the meeting, conveyed to the contractors that Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had issued clear the directives to the city administration to ensure the implementation of the contracts inked with the Chinese firms. “The CM wants the city clean. He wants the cleanliness activity to be improved,” said Shallwani.

The meeting, according to the press statement, also showed dissatisfaction over the replies of the Chinese companies. They were told that they were not keeping up with their responsibilities of keeping roads, streets, neighborhoods and footpaths clean.

Deputy Commissioner South Syed Salahuddin Ahmed informed the meeting about how the Chinese Company awarded the contract in his district had failed to provide the required number of dustbins, equipment and machinery.

The commissioner asked the representatives of the Chinese companies to follow the agreements to play their role to make the districts assigned to them clean.

He also ordered close coordination between the district administration and SSWMB officials for better performance. He was of the view that the companies would work according to the agreements; otherwise, action would be taken against them according to the law of the land.

A day earlier, Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah also took exception to the Chinese contracting company stopping garbage disposal work in District East of Karachi on the pretext that the SSWMB had stopped paying it.

Nasir 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.

The Sindh CM also released Rs88 million on Tuesday to three DMCs and the District Council Karachi to get their machinery repaired and start cleanliness work. He was presiding over a meeting to review the results of the month-long cleanliness drive that concluded on October 21.

He said the districts of Korangi, West and Central, and District Council may be given funds to repair vehicles and related machinery so that they could start cleanliness of their areas. He ordered the release of Rs17 million to Korangi, Rs22 million to West, Rs37 million to Central and Rs12 million to the Karachi District Council.

Murad directed the SSWMB to take strict action against contracting firms if they failed to deliver. “This is not a free of cost work but the provincial government is paying to contracting firms; therefore, cleanliness work must be up to the satisfaction of the citizens.”

He said that just after concluding the garbage-lifting drive, the contracting firms of the SSWMB went on strike. “This is a deliberate attempt to turn the city once again filthy and this is not acceptable at any cost,” he said and directed the SSWMB MD to take strict action against the contractors.

“Union councils are small units and their chairmen and other concerned staff can ensure proper sweeping and cleaning of their areas easily,” he said. “I am assigning supervision work to the chairmen of DMCs.”