Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah approved Rs. 17.7 billion to purchase eight snorkels, fire tenders, refuse trucks, tractors and trolleys for local bodies of the province. He took this decision on Tuesday while presiding over a meeting.
The chief minister was informed that eight snorkels, each one of 35 meter long would be purchase for divisional headquarters, three for Karachi, each one for Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Nawab shah, Sukkur, Mir pur khas and Larkana. Minister Local Government Nasir Shah told the meeting that the municipal committees have to transport garbage swept from their respective areas to their landfill sites, therefore 102 tractor and trolleys were to purchase against Rs. 4.1 billion. The Ministry of local government moved another purchase case of 89 fire tenders and 115 refuse trucks for different municipal committees of the province. Chief Minister approved these proposals in next fiscal year. Murad Ali Shah directed Minister Local government to activate KMC and DMCs to clean and desilt their major nullas before the start of monsoon season.
Due to political controversy between PPP Sindh government and MQM, the local bodies system was completely struck particularly in Karachi. Former Mayor KMC Waseem Akhtar had always used to complaint about his helplessness and accused the Sindh government for non-provision of resources and funds to carry out the routine operations of the KMC.
According to reports, The Sindh government had slowly changed the laws and rules regarding locals bodies in Sindh for the sake of hand cuffing MQM led KMC during the Mayorship of Waseem Akhtar. After, completion of his term, Sindh government posted Afzal Zaidi as Municipal Commissioner Karachi and gradually set to undo its own handiwork against KMC. According to world bank report, revenues of KMC are inadequate, with a high dependence on fiscal transfers from Government of Sindh accounting for more than 80% of its revenue. Recently, Sindh Government authorized the KMC to formulate plans for generating revenue through tax charges and fees etc. In fact, the people of Karachi had paid huge price for the political controversy of PPP and MQM during last few years. Hopefully, now Sindh government will invest more in local bodies including KMC to improve its vote bank in urban areas of Sindh.
