KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the Public Health Engineering (PHE) & Rural Development Department (RDD) are playing a vital role in the development of rural areas, but it ultimately is the responsibility of local people to look after the water supply, drainage and solar energy schemes.

He was presiding over a meeting of PHE& RDD officials here at the CM House on Saturday.

The meeting was attended by Minister for PHE&RDD Fayaz Butt, P&D Chairman Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Secretary Public health Tamizuddin Khero, Member P&D Khalid Mahmood, Chief Engineer Hyderabad Nafees Shaikh, P&D Director Tech Abdus Sattar Qureshi and other concerned officers.

Minister for PHE&RDD Fayaz Butt said that the PHE department had launched 231 water supply and drainage schemes of worth Rs4.11 billion, out of which 165 were ongoing, while 76 were new.

The meeting was informed that against the allocation of Rs4.1 billion, the government had released Rs4 billion.

The meeting was told that 70 water supply and 115 drainage schemes were ongoing at the cost of Rs3.8 billion.

PHE Secretary Tameezuddin Khero told the meeting that 40 RO plants had been installed in 13 districts, out of which 35 were functional.

The chief minister directed him to take necessary measures to functionalize the out of order five RO plants located in Tando Allahyar (3 units), Naushehroferoze (one unit) and Mirpurkhas (3 units).

He also directed the minister for PHE& RDD to inspect the out of order RO plants as well as those functional so that necessary measures could be taken to repair them.

Minister for PHE& RDD Fayaz Butt said that RDD department had launched a programme to install 14222 LED lights in rural areas.

He added that so far 8376 such lights had been installed.

“The details are 3080 in district Hyderabad villages, 1579 in Shaheed Benazirabad, 868 in Mirpurkhas, 1774 in Larkana and 1075 in Sukkur villages,” he explained.

He further said that RDD, during 2017-18, had launched 63 schemes of worth Rs4.9 billion for which Rs3 billion had been allocated in the current financial year, out of which so far Rs122 million had been released.

The chief minister said that a scheme of worth Rs68 million had been launched for the installation of solar tube wells for supplying water to different villages of Thano Bola Khan.

Similar schemes have also been initiated in villages of Mehar and Khairpur Nathan Shah at the cost of Rs28 million and in various other villages of Tangwani- Kandhkot district, taluka Duar of Nawabshah and so on.

The CM directed P&D Chairman Mohammad Waseem to develop a plan so that the completed schemes could be handed over to the village heads so that they could look after them themselves. “This is very important; otherwise it would be difficult to keep an eye on them,” he said.

The chief minister also said that RDD had also been assigned the task to install solar lights in rural areas at the cost of Rs3 billion.

It has also been given Rs2 billion electrification of off-grid areas through solar technology under which schools and villages would be electrified.

A similar phase-II of Rs80 billion would be launched. “I would urge you (PHE&RDD) to be more effective and efficient to achieve the assigned task,” he directed the Fayaz Butt.

Our Staff Reporter