Citizens urged to lodge complaints against unattended remains of sacrificial animals

Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar on Thursday asked the citizens to lodge complaints on helpline 1399 of the Citizens Complaints Information Centre if animal remains are not removed from their areas.

According to a press statement from the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), relevant teams of the District Municipal Corporations (DMCs) will be sent to lift the offal and keep the environment clean so that people could perform the religious obligation without any difficulty.

He said this while presiding over a meeting to review measures for Eid-ul-Azha. KMC Senior Director Coordination Masood Alam, Senior Director Municipal Services Nauman Irshad, Director Fumigation Abdur Raheem Qudwai, Director City Wardens Raja Rustam, Director Musheer Ahmed and other officials were present on the occasion.

The mayor directed that the DMCs should conduct fumigation at collection points on each day of Eid-ul-Azha, adding that each district would be given three vehicles, spray and staff for the purpose. “Prompt action should be taken on complaints lodged on of the Citizens Complaints Information Centre,” he directed.

Akhtar requested the citizens to show responsibility and keep their streets and roads clean by dumping offal only at fixed places. “It is necessary to ensure cleanliness and follow the standard operating procedures in the wake of coronavirus and other diseases,” he added.

The mayor directed the district administrations to ensure cleanliness and lift the sacrificial animals’ offal without any delay as “the situation may get worse if it rains over Eid”. “An effective mechanism should be devised for the lifting and disposal of the animals’ remains so the people could be facilitated,” he said.

He also passed directives for carrying our cleanliness and fumigation drives around mosques, imam bargahs and eidgahs by Friday. He was of the view that religious scholars should be requested to ask the people to follow the SOPs.

“Like previous years, hundreds of thousands of animals would be sacrificed across Karachi this year too and this huge number demands us to make similar arrangements for the offals’ disposal,” he added.

Akhtar asked the district administrations to take full advantage of their experience of the last few years to facilitate the citizens. “This is the city of all of us and we can keep it clean with joint efforts. I hope all departments would play their role and facilitate the people with collective efforts,” he said. He appealed to the citizens not to throw the animals’ offal in drains and stop the ones who did so as it would chock nullahs and ultimately the people would suffer.