KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that development of rural areas of Karachi would go alongside the uplift of the city.

He was presiding over a meeting on development issues of Malir district at Sindh Secretariat here on Thursday. The meeting was attended by Provincial Ministers Dr Sikandar Mendhro, Jam Khan Shoro, Imdad Pitafi, Additional Chief Secretary (Dev) M Waseem, Provincial Secretaries Hassan Naqvi, Baqaullah Unar, Aijaz Memon and senior officers of various departments.

Education was the first subject taken up by the participants. The elected representatives from Malir said that around 113 schemes of educational institutions, including schools, colleges remained incomplete till this date for certain reasons such as shortage of funds, failure to form PC-IV (completion of the project) and so on.

The CM discussed each and every scheme with them and then ordered the concerned engineer to take a round of each and every scheme and send him a detailed report within three days. He directed the education department to prepare SNE for the educational institutions within two days so that these could be opened in the larger public interest. “It would be great success, if I make 113 educational institutions functional by the end of current financial year,” he said.

It was pointed out in the meeting that most of the health centers were not functioning to their capacity because the doctors appointed there did not turn up.

They gave the example of rural health center of Murad Memon where hardly five persons performed their duties.

Expressing his displeasure over the situation, Murad directed the health minister to take strict action. “Those who are reluctant to do their work should be fired,” he said and added that he had declared health emergency with the objective to make health department always ready to provide services to the people of Sindh. “This is intolerable,” he remarked.

It was also disclosed at the meeting that most of the bungalows housing BHCs and RHCs had been occupied illegally by some outsiders.

The CM directed the commissioner Karachi to get the bungalows vacated immediately and take strict action against the occupiers and their facilitators.

The chief minister pointed out that construction of a 60-bed health center in Asu Goth had been completed. “The building is complete for the last six months, but work at the center is yet to start,” he added. He directed Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mendhro to propose its SNE and get it approved from the finance & P&D department within a week.

The meeting also discussed water supply schemes threadbare. It was informed that the schemes for around 52 villages of Gadap had been completed, but it had no PMT to start operation.

To this, Murad directed the commissioner Karachi to talk to KE administration for the installation of PMT.

Another scheme, under which water is to be provided to 48 villages of Ghaggar Phatak, also came under discussion for which the chief minister directed the DC Malir to ensure proper provision of water to the residents. There were some reports of misuse of water against which the chief minister issued clear-cut instructions to the district administration. The meeting was in progress when the CM sent the health minister and his team to all under-construction health centers. “I want a detailed report name-wise, releases, utilisation of funds and reason for delay so that appropriate action could be taken in the public interest,” he said.

He also sent another team of education department with the same instructions and directed them to complete the survey within three days and submit the report on a daily basis. “I will visit Malir and see to it that each and every scheme becomes functional,” he added.

Murad directed the chief secretary to talk to NADRA officials to increase the number of their centres in Malir district. Presently there are only two centres; one at Memon Goth and other at Gulshan-e-Hadeed, which are insufficient for inhabitants of these areas. The CM also directed the commissioner Karachi to hold weekly meetings on development in each and every district of Karachi so that the issues could be identified and resolved accordingly.