KARACHI - Despite clear-cut directives by the federal government, the Sindh government had not yet started the activities of Civil Defence department, sources informed The Nation on Saturday. One of the reasons of poor official working and not holding the activities in the department is stated to be not merging the department into the local and district governments properly. It is pertinent to note that the drills and exercises of Civil Defence volunteers has been stopped for the last several years due to lack of interest by the Civil Defence officers. Sources said that shortage of funds and not taking timely and proper action by the Sindh government on the poor performance of the department are the reasons of not holding the programmes of Civil Defence. Besides the department itself has failed to understand the gravity of the issue and its responsibility, it also faces scarcity of basic rescue equipment and majority of the employees do not take interest in their duties since long. It may be noted that Civil Defence had been devolved in the City government in 2001. Despite passing 8 years it is functioning according to the old procedure, under the administration of Home Department of Sindh government. The functioning of Civil Defence is stopped since long due to various reasons but the main reasons are lack of funds and Sindh government and CDGK did not take interest in running the department in a proper manner. Sources disclosed that warning system of Civil Defence, which warns the citizens through sirens in case of any urgency, is out of order and the officers concerned are not taking interest to repair it and prepare themselves to meet any possible eventuality. The sources said that the Civil Defence was still functioning according to the old planning as its offices were established in four defunct districts of Karachi including South, West, East and Central. The directorate of the Civil Defence is situated in Jubilee, Garden East, where the office of the Civil Defence director is located. They said that from low grade to grade-19, more than 200 employees were working in the department across the province out of which more than 80 employees were work in the four offices established in the four defunct districts of Karachi City. The inside sources mentioned that the employees are used to avoid doing official work for the last one decade. They mentioned that basic reason of this pathetic condition of the Civil Defence is that funds are not being given to the department. However, sources claimed that 4 to 5,000 old volunteers of Civil Defence who are zealous and enthusiastic to serve the nation in difficult times and always remained in touch with the department but no one is there to bear the expenditures of their transportation and meal if they were called to organise the drills and exercises. An official in the department said that several times, the issues and problems of Civil Defence had been raised in the meetings with high-ups of Sindh government. From the chief secretary Sindh to the officers of Home Department knew everything about the pathetic condition of the Civil Defence but they did not take any action to redress the problems of the department.