Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the provincial finance department to release Rs2.39 billion for the completion of five major development schemes in Karachi by June 2021.
He issued the direction while presiding over a meeting on the mega projects of the city on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Law Adviser Murtaza Wahab, Planning and Development Board Chairman M Waseem, Finance Secretary Hassan Naqvi, Local Government Secretary Najam Shah, Karachi Package Project Director Khalid Masroor and others.
The CM was told that the scheme for the rehabilitation of 12 roads surrounding the Lea Market in Lyari was launched with an estimated cost of Rs649.210 million, and of the 12 roads, eight had almost been completed while the work on the remaining ones was 85 per cent complete.
The meeting was informed that the reconstruction of 8000 Road from the Jam Sadiq Bridge to Dawood Chowrangi was launched with an estimated cost of Rs1.289 billion and the scheme was 90 per cent complete.
It was said that the remaining funds for the Lea Market and 8000 Road projects amounting to Rs454.96 million were yet to be released, to which the CM directed the finance secretary to release the funds by Friday and directed the project director to complete the projects by January 2021 and report to him when they were ready for inauguration.
The CM was told that three new schemes worth Rs909.923 million had been launched in Karachi.
One of the three schemes is the reconstruction of the road from the Habib Metro to the SITE police station with a cost of Rs282.743 million. The funds for the scheme have not been released so far.
The second project is the reconstruction of the main track from Ghani Chowarngi to the Hub River via Get College and it has been launched with a cost of Rs201.808 million. The funds for the scheme are yet to be released.
The reconstruction of a storm water drain and dual carriageway from the Ahsanabad Police Station Chowk to Maymar Road has been launched with a cost of Rs425.372 million for which funds are awaited.
The CM said the total cost of the three schemes was Rs909.923 million and directed the finance department to release 50 per cent of the sum, Rs 454.9615 million, and once their utilisation report was submitted, release the remaining 50 per cent amount.
He also directed the project director to complete these schemes by the end of the current financial year. Discussing another Rs995.03 million scheme for the reconstruction of the road from Gulbai to Y-junction along with a storm water drain, the CM directed Masroor to construct all the roads near Hawkes Bay simultaneously so that the area could be opened for tourists.
Meanwhile, talking to a delegation of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) led by its city chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman at the CM House, the chief minister said the local bodies in Sindh would be strengthened by incorporating necessary amendments in the Sindh Local Government Act 2013.
The JI delegation included Syed Abdul Rasheed, Muslim Parvaiz, Usama Razi, Saifuddin Ghazi and Zahid Askari while the CM was accompanied by the local government minister and law adviser.
The JI leaders stressed the need for strengthening local bodies in Sindh by giving them more powers, to which Murad said he had already announced in his last press conference that the local government law would be amended to strengthen the local governments in the province.
The CM added that he had also decided to devolve the operations of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board and the Sindh Building Control Authority to the divisional level.
The JI delegation urged the CM to take up the issue of the census with the federal government. “The census is a controversial issue and the grievances of Karachiites in this regard should be addressed,” said the JI city chief. The CM told the delegation that it was he who had taken up this matter in the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and now the next CCI meeting was scheduled for November 11, in which he would again urge the forum to decide the matter.
Murad told the JI leaders that he was ready to hold the local bodies elections in Sindh but before that the results of the census had to be notified. The JI leaders also raised the issue of unemployment in the province, particularly Karachi, to which the CM said that for the last four years, job opportunities could not be given to the people of the province.
“These days we have identified job opportunities from grade BPS-1 to BPS-4 in different departments,” he said and added that “only people of the union councils concerned would be given those jobs purely on merit.”
Murad further explained that jobs from grade BPS-5 to BPS-15 would be given through the National Testing Service test as there would be no compromise on merit. The JI delegation also presented a memorandum containing their concerns and demands to the chief minister.