The victims of Karachi’s Orangi and Gujjar nullahs will be paid Rs 15,000 every month for two years, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has announced.
The decision was taken in a provincial cabinet meeting Tuesday. It was agreed that the evacuees will be given residential units in the Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme as well.
Sindh Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah briefed in the meeting that 344 houses near the Gujjar nullah and 60 houses and six factories near the Orangi nullah have been demolished in the encroachment drive so far.
“We will take an Rs300,000 subsidy from the federal government and provide 30,000 residential units to the victims,” Shah revealed, adding that the land for the houses will be provided by the Sindh government.
He explained that after the 2020 monsoon rains in Karachi, the Supreme Court had instructed the administration to remove encroachments along the nullahs and clean them.
“Consequently, in September last year, Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Karachi and announced an Rs1.13 trillion package for the city.” After this, CM Sindh formed the Provincial Coordination and Implementation Committee.
The PCIC was handed the responsibility of cleaning the stormwater drains. The NED University of Engineering and Technology was selected to conduct the hydraulic and hydrological surveys of the nullahs.
The minister added that the Sindh government has filed three petitions in the Supreme Court requesting the provision of Rs 10 billion Bahria Town funds.
“This amount will be used in the compensation of the victims.”Earlier this year, the Supreme Court released a written order in the anti-encroachment case and ordered the authorities to compensate the people whose leased houses have been demolished in the drive along Orangi and Gujjar nullahs.
At a hearing on September 23, the top court came down on the Sindh government over delays in the compensation for the people who lost their homes through forced evictions at the Orangi and Gujjar nullahs. “Shame on you [Sindh government],” Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed said.
The court instructed Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah to resettle the victims within a year and summoned a report on it, adding that resettling the affectees is the state’s responsibility and we have to find a way to do that.
Gujjar and Orangi nullahs are two of the three stormwater drains that are being widened to ensure a smooth flow of rainwater. Mehmoodabad is the other one.