DADU, Jan 3: The city’s underground drainage system often gets choked and causes the gutters to overflow onto the streets and roads as it has grown too old and worn out to sustain increasing pressure.

The drainage system had been laid on special directives of former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto when he visited the city in 1976.

Sindh government has approved Rs600 million to overhaul the system, which will be completed in five years, after it collapsed recently and flooded scores of graves in the historical graveyard Channo Shahabad.

The open drainage system has also broken down in Channo Shahabad, Markhpur, Jagatabad, Shahani, Shahbaz Colony and Moundar Nako localities.

Ali Ahmed who lives in Shahbaz Colony complained that sewage had accumulated on all the roads leading to the city, making it difficult for the area people to move to the city. The elected representatives were the least concerned to resolve the problem, he complained.

The general secretary of PPP Dadu, Adam Khan Solangi, said that since 1976 when it was put in place, the underground system had neither been expanded nor repaired though needed major repairs.

He said that suggestions had been sent to provincial minister Pir Mazharul Haq to play his role in getting the system improved.

PML-Q’s District Naib Nazim Syed Hussain Shah who lives in Markhpur locality said that his locality suffered neglect due to political interference. The failure of drainage system leads to waterborne diseases among people.

Taluka Nazim Najeeb Panhwar said that due to long duration of loadshedding, supply of drinking water was also badly affected, he said.

He said that he had asked Wapda officials to spare water supply schemes when they carried out loadshedding but in vain.

Sindh Minister for Education Pir Mazharul Haq said that a Rs600 million mega project for the construction of new underground drainage scheme had been approved by the Sindh government.

He said that water supply scheme would also be laid to supply clean drinking water to people. Within a few days, work on the mega drainage project would be started, he said.

He said that PPP government had always launched pro-people schemes while the previous governments had embezzled money in the name of such schemes.

ARRESTED: Police claimed to have arrested two bandits from the katcha area on Saturday in the wake of a policemen’s murder.