KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday directed the P&D and revenue boards to conduct a survey of the damages caused to the infrastructure, homes and crops so that rehabilitation of the road network could be undertaken immediately and compensation paid for the damaged houses.

Meanwhile, he released Rs5 million to each deputy commissioner of Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions for draining rainwater and other similar works.

This he said while presiding over a meeting to review the post-rainfall situation in all the districts, including Karachi, here at the CM House.

The meeting was attended by Revenue Minister Makhdoom Mahboob, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Chairman P&D M. Waseem, Senior Member Board of Revenue Qazi Shahid Parvez, Commissioner of Karachi Sohail Rajput and all deputy commissioners of Karachi division. The commissioners of other divisions of the province attended the meeting through video link.

The chief minister said that the heavy rains had damaged the road network in Karachi, therefore, just after the next spell repair work must be started.

He directed the P&D chairman to call PD Karachi project Khalid Masroor and ask him to start repair work. “I have directed all the deputy commissioners of the city to conduct a survey of the damaged road, nullahs, streets and gutters and submit the same to the P&D chairman for necessary estimates and approval so that work could be started,” he said.

The chief minister said that almost all the major roads in the city had been cleaned but the deputy commissioners were facing a shortage of workers and other manpower to get the streets cleaned.

He directed the finance secretary to release Rs5 million to each deputy commissioner of Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions for disposal of rainwater, and other small works.

Karachi Commissioner Sohail Rajput told the chief minister that the route of Muharram procession had been cleared but there was rainwater accumulated at Merewether Tower. The chief minister directed the commissioner to depute special workers’ teams and get the entire route of the procession cleared.

Water in low-lying areas

The chief minister was said that almost all the main arteries of the city had been cleared, except the streets, villages and localities established along the embankments of Gujjar Nullah, Malir River and Sukkun River.

Power breakdown

In the meeting prolonged power suspension in the city was pointed out against which people started staging protests.

The commissioner said that the K-Electric had 1,900 feeders in the city, of them 1,730 had been restored and 170 were yet to be restored.

The chief minister said that major areas of the DHA were without electricity. At this the chief minister was told that most of the streets were inundated. The KE does not restore electricity in the area where water is stagnant, the chief minister was apprised.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2020