HYDERABAD: Hyderabad Mayor Tayyab Hussain has urged Sindh government to work on a war-footing ahead of onset of monsoon rains to preempt the disaster which had hit the city last year and complained that prejudiced and biased policies have paralysed local government departments.

“Hyderabad faces a host of civic problems because of gross ineptitude of Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA), its subsidiary Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), irrigation department and Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco),” said the mayor at a joint press conference along with Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan MPAs Nadeem Siddiqui and Rashid Khilji in Latifabad Unit-9 on Sunday.

“We urge the Sindh government not to ignore Hyderabad, ensure that all arrangements are made immediately before the onset of monsoon rains, shun biased policies, resolve all civic issues, announce a development package for the second largest city of the province, make the mayor and elected representatives members of HDA governing body, revamp Wasa and strengthen local government departments with full financial support,” he said.

He warned that expected heavy rains might take a heavy toll on many residential and commercial areas because of worn out and dilapidated sewerage system.

He said that employees of Wasa had not been paid salaries for several months and the government seemed to have no permanent solution to this problem because of its wrong and biased policies and irresponsible attitude towards urban areas.

“Heavy monsoon rains are approaching while areas of Latifabad and city are already deluged in stagnant sewage oozing from overflowing gutters and nullahs. It is Wasa’s responsibility to drain out sewage and clear drains before and during rains by keeping required machinery ready and making heavy generators available in case of power failure to keep the system running during feared torrential rains,” he said.

He said that rise in water level in canals was already causing sewage problems in cities as the irrigation department had failed to stren­gthen embankments of canals, remove encroachments from dykes and move residents living near or on the dykes to safe places.

He said that Sindh Chief Min­ister Syed Murad Ali Shah had visited inundated localities in Hyd­erabad last year and announced financial aid for local government departments but his promise never saw the light of the day.

He regretted that Pakistan Peoples Party failed to relalise grievances and problems of urban populations. People of Hyderabad had been facing acute shortage of clean drinking water and faulty sewerage system for years but the PPP government had grown so step-motherly towards them that it had not given the city even one mega development project over the party’s 12 years in rule, he said.

The mayor said that rulers had deprived many youths of jobs in public sector on the pretext of fake domiciles and the provincial government had utterly failed to resolve issues of local governments. It was a shame that no place had been reserved so far for landfill sites for disposing of tonnes of garbage lying across the city, he said.

He said the Sindh government had adopted biasness over pay raise for employees of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and increase in the city’s share of Octroi tax while several departments had encroached upon the corporation’s land as the authorities looked the other way.

He called for restoring services of Red Crescent Cardiac Hospital in Latifabad Unit-2 to ensure healthcare facilities were provided to the poor.

MPA Nadeem Siddiqui highlighted issues of SITE area and said it had become a large forest with wild bushes growing everywhere and infrastructure in a shambles. Raw water was being supplied to the area which had become a safe heaven for criminals, he said.

He asked where billions of rupees released over the past 12 years for the development the city had gone because there was no visible work in Hyderabad.

MPA Rashid Khilji complained that the provincial government had not allocated fund in this year’s budget for new mega projects for water supply, health, education and infrastructure in Hyderabad.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2020