ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Government Assurances was informed on Monday that 24 public-sector universities did not have filtration plants on their campus to provide safe drinking water to students.

In 2018, the National Assembly had directed all public and private-sector universities to ensure installation of filtration plants. However, 24 public-sector universities still lack this facility for students.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) officials failed to give a satisfactory reply to the parliamentary panel about filtration plant facility in private universities.

The issue was taken up by the standing committee, which met at the Parliament House with MNA Mohammad Afzal Khokhar in the chair.

Committee seeks action against institutions failing to provide safe drinking water to students; takes notice of delay in development of E-12, I-15

The committee was also informed that 30pc of the diseases in the country were due to polluted water.

Similarly, 40pc of the citizens lose lives due to diseases caused by contaminated water. So, the provision of safe drinking water is necessary.

The committee was briefed by representatives of the Higher Education Commission regarding filtration plants in universities.

The committee was informed that on Sept 18, 2018, the National Assembly resolved that water filtration plants should be installed in all of government and private universities.

As many as 59 universities requested for financial assistance for installation of safe drinking water facilities for students.

The HEC submitted a PC-I to the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives for provision of safe drinking water in 59 government universities but the ministry turned down the summary because according to it, every university could afford a small amount of Rs3 million to provide safe drinking water facility to its students.

As a result, 35 more universities installed the water filtration plants, with 24 higher education institutions left that have still not made necessary arrangements for installing the plants.

The HEC hoped that they would pursue for installation of water filtration plants and in the near future all public-sector universities would ensure provision of safe drinking water.

When the standing committee asked about the situation in private universities with regards to provision of safe drinking water, the HEC failed to provide a satisfactory reply.

The committee directed that complete list of government and private universities with respect to safe drinking water should be provided to it and action taken against those institutions that fail to provide safe drinking water to the students before the next meeting.

Earlier, while discussing another agenda item, the committee took serious notice of the delay in development of sectors E-12 and I-15 and directed that work on both sectors should be completed forthwith and plots handed over to the allottees.

Meanwhile, the committee was informed that employees of Islamabad police, security departments and other ministries/divisions/departments who served in the budget sessions were being granted honorarium for the last several years.

All other departments have paid complete or partial honorarium to its employees but the police department and other security departments did not pay anything to their employees.

The committee directed that the honoraria be paid to the employees of ICT police and other security departments and that the interior secretary and IGP should attend the next meeting in person and submit the compliance report.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2022