KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the local government department to complete the transition period of local councils, which is still in progress, so that elected representatives can serve the people of their areas.

He also directed the public health engineering (PHE) department to prepare a scheme under which non-functional RO plants could be functionalised in the interest of the local people.

He was presiding over a joint meeting of different departments which he convened after holding meetings of party workers in divisional headquarters. Those who attended the meeting included Minister Education Syed Sardar Shah, Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah and other concerned officers.

The CM said that during his meeting with the elected representatives of local councils in the divisional headquarters, he was told that the transition period was in progress in their areas. Local Government Secretary Khalid Hyder Shah said that some local bodies had not completed their transition work, on which the CM directed the secretary to complete the transition at once and hand over powers to the elected representatives so that they could serve their people.

Asks authorities to make operational all non-functional RO plants in Sindh

Mr Shah said that he had also received numerous complaints during the meeting against the non-functioning of RO plants installed in various villages. On that, PHE Secretary Sohail Qureshi told the CM that in March, he had repaired and functionalised 140 RO plants in various districts.

Those included 26 plants in the villages of Badin, seven in Sujawal, 10 in Matiari, three in Jamshoro, eight in Karachi, nine in Mirpurkhas, 10 in Tharparkar and 10 in Tando Allahyar villages and others.

The CM was told that repair of 140 RO plants was made from the maintenance and repairs (M&R) budget.

Mr Shah said that he had also received complaints from the Mirpurkhas division, particularly the villages of Tharparkar and Umerkot, where RO plants were out of order. He directed secretary PHE to get them functionalised within the next two months.

Mr Qureshi told the CM that the list of around 100 RO plants sent to him by the CM secretariat included the RO plants of various villages of Sukkur, Mirpur Mathelo (Ghotki), Khairpur, Naushehroferoze, and Shaheed Benazirabad. He said that repair of the RO plants, as directed by the chief minister, would be carried out by the department within two months from the existing M&R budget.

The CM directed the PHE department to repair and operationalise 200 RO plants of various villages of Tharparkar and Umer Kot districts during the current financial year M&R budget and report to him.

He said that there was a complaint that the PHE department handed over its pumping stations and their staff to the towns but the funds for their salaries and payment of electricity bills had not been given to them. Therefore, the employees were working without salary. Khalid Hyder Shah assured the CM that he and secretary PHE department would sit together and resolve the issue of salaries of the employees.

The chief minister directed the PHE department to prepare a comprehensive scheme so that all the RO plants not functioning due to technical issues or for want of electricity be envisaged for the next budget so that they could be operationalised by repairing and converting them into solar energy.

Mr Shah directed the energy department to ask the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company and Sukkur Electric Power Company not to resort to prolonged load-shedding during the sweltering weather. “The rural areas of the province are in the grip of hot weather. Therefore, power-distributing companies should take care of the people by not resorting to load-shedding during mid-day,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2024