SUKKUR, Aug 14: Sukkur and Jacobabad towns have been left at the mercy of ‘criminally negligent’ staff of the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC), who have literally turned the two towns into large junkyards, complain town residents.

They said that gutters were overflowing because many drains had developed chokes and heaps of garbage were scattered around in almost all localities of the towns.

In Sukkur, sanitation staff did come to work in different localities on the first day of Eid but they spent most of the time collecting ‘Eidi’ from people instead of cleaning the streets.

On Monday and Tuesday, they were nowhere to be seen despite end of all the Eid holidays and start of working days, said the residents.

They said that even areas around the NSUSC headquarters presented a stark picture of negligence with huge dumps of garbage littering Sindhi Cooperative Housing Society, Shah Khalid Colony, commissioner’s office, public school and Bihar Colony.

They said that several sewerage lines developed chokes and filthy water was seen overflowing on roads and streets in the areas of Qureshi Road, Muhalla Baban Shah, Dubba Road, Nomaish Road, Nusrat Colony No5, Pak Colony, Adam Shah Colony, Dhak Road, Workshop Road, Latif Park (old Sukkur), Bhakkar Chowk and other areas. Flies and mosquitoes were multiplying in different localities of Sukkur because of poor sanitation, posing a serious threat to people’s health, they said.

In Jacobabad, rainwater stagnating for the past one week on the Station Road near the bungalow of former National Assembly speaker Ellahi Bux Soomro had started giving off foul smell but nothing had so far been done to drain it out, said the residents. Rainwater also flooded the area from the hospital of Dr Vikirma Jeet up to the gate of the railway station.