THATTA: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah approved Rs17.7 billion to purchase eight snorkels, fire tenders, refuse trucks, trackers and trolleys for local bodies of the province.

 

He took this decision on Tuesday while presiding over a meeting here at the CM House. The meeting was attended by Local Government Minister Nasir Shah, Law Advisor Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, P and D Chairman M Waseem, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Finance Hassan Secretary Naqvi, Local Government Secretary Najam Shah and others.

 

The local government department presented a proposal to purchase eight snorkels for extinguishing fire in high rise buildings. The chief minister was told that eight snorkels, each one 35 meters long would be purchased for divisional headquarters -, three for Karachi, each one for Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Nawabshah, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas and Larkana divisions.

 

The local government minister told the chief minister that the tender process for purchasing snorkels had been undertaken. He added that the snorkels were needed for all divisional headquarters. At this, the chief minister said that the amount of Rs1.5 billion would be made available in the next financial year.

 

Nasir told the meeting that the municipal committees had to transport garbage swept from their respective areas to their landfill sites, therefore, 102 tractor and trolleys were required. The purchase would cost Rs4.1 billion. The chief minister, in principle, approved the proposal and directed finance department to make the amount available in the start of the next financial year.

 

The local government department presented another scheme to purchase 89 fire tenders for different municipal committees. The minister said that most of the municipal committees were in need of fire tenders for firefighting. The CM approved Rs2.8 billion for purchase of 89 fire tenders to be provided to municipal committees all over Sindh.

 

He also approved another proposal of the local government department under which 115 refuse trucks would be purchased for Rs9.3 billion in the next financial year. Murad directed LG minister to activate KMC and DMCs to clean and desilt their major nullas. “The monsoon season was approaching, therefore, desilting of major nullas should be started shortly,” he said.