SUKKUR: About 80 per cent refuse removal vehicles have gone out of order but the management of the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC) is not ready to get them repaired citing a lack of funds, according to sources.

The sources in the corporation blamed cold war among officials for the worsening situation and disclosed that lifters and Quingqi rickshaws worth millions of rupees, which had been bought in 2011 to remove garbage had been parked over faults.

Some NSUSC officials told Dawn on Thursday on condition of anonymity that out of 11 side-loaders and rear-loaders meant for lifting garbage containers, only three were functioning and the rest were gathering rust in the open in SITE area.

The sources attributed the delay in getting the vehicles repaired to personal enmity and jealousy among officials who were busy pulling each others’ legs.

NSUSC spokesperson Malook Baloch rejected the allegations of personal enmity among officials and said that all machinery and vehicles were in working condition.

Meanwhile, a large number of people took out rallies in several localities against the worsening sanitary conditions. The protesters held the officials responsible for the litter spread all over the city and the overflowing gutters.

They said the NSUSC had failed to do its job and the officials concerned were busy to serve their vested interests. They appealed to the chief minister to disband the utility and hand back the responsibilities to Sukkur Municipal Corporation.

Almost all sanitary staff had been striking four days a week over non-payment of salaries, incentives and other dues for the past seven months, which had also affected the cleanliness, they said.

In-charge of water works blamed unannounced loadshedding for hiccups in water supply to the city and warned there would be acute shortage of water from Dec 20 to Feb 10, 2017 because of annual closure of canals.

Work on water jetty for lifting water from left bank of the river had not been started even after passage of 15 years, he said.

The newly elected city mayor, too, has so far failed to improve conditions.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2016