KARACHI - Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar on Wednesday appreciated Bahria Town Chairman Malik Riaz’s participation in the efforts for improving cleanliness in Karachi whereas the Bahria Town chairman offered Rs10 billion support for public welfare works in the city.
At a MoU signing ceremony held here at KMC building, the mayor, on behalf of the KMC, and Malik Riaz, representing Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd, signed an agreement for the removal of backlog of garbage from the city.
The documents were exchanged and the mayor gave a shield from KMC to the Bahria Town chairman.
Under the agreement, KMC will take the lead role through mayor to remove the backlog of garbage with the assistance of Bahria Town.
The total generation of garbage in the city is approximately 13000 tonnes per day and the capacity of DMCs to remove the garbage is 40 percent, resulting in increase in backlog daily.
The estimated backlog all over Karachi both in rural and urban areas is around 1.1 million tonnes.
KMC and DMCs will participate in the campaign through their available expertise and manpower. Both the parties shall coordinate and cooperate with each other to make the living better.
Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhter, while addressing the ceremony, said the drive would begin from district central after Eid-ul-Azha and the same would be replicated in other districts once work was completed in district central.
He said all district chairmen and elected representatives would also participate in these works.
Karachi Deputy Mayor Dr Arshad Vohra, DMC Central Chairman Rehan Hashmi, DMC East Chairman Moeed Anwer, DMC Korangi Chairman Nayyar Raza, former town nazim Izhar Ahmed Khan besides city council’s parliamentary leader Aslam Shah Afridi, chairmen and chairperson of city council committees, KMC officers and others were also present on the occasion.
Wasim thanked the chairman of Bahria Town for his concern about Karachi and said he had been helping Karachiites through his active financial support in their hour of need.
He said no payment would be made to Bahria Town for its contribution to the removal of garbage backlog from the city and that Riaz had agreed to volunteer himself for this work.
The mayor made it clear that the agreement was meant to clear the backlog only, and in order to make the efforts sustainable, Government of Sindh should come up with financial support and administrative measures, for which he had offered all sorts of cooperation and guidance to them.
Bahria Town chairman, in his address, said he was ready to provide any kind of support and cooperation to the mayor in his endeavours to make Karachi a better city for living.
“If the mayor hands us over any hospital or school, we will happily manage it in a better way or if they ask us to begin work on any road we will do this immediately,” Riaz assured.
Regarding a query about Bagh Ibne Qasim, he said it was only due to some misunderstanding that people raised eyebrows, but the fact was that, “We were not going to take charge of this park and were only playing our role in making it better,” he said, and added, “Now the mayor is doing this job and we are with him in this connection.”