Local Government Minister Punjab Zeeshan Rafique has said Chief Minister’s Suthra Punjab programme will be carried forward and accomplished in a phased manner. “After outsourcing the sanitation system of both villages and cities, we will in the next step to make the solid waste our source by making it usable.” he said and added that the Punjab government was going to introduce a model of recycling the bulk of waste by ensuring its segregation. He was addressing a press conference regarding Suthra Punjab programme at DGPR here on Sunday. He said that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif announced the biggest cleaning programme in the history of the province soon after taking oath of her office.
Despite holy month of Ramazan, the government machinery honestly tried to implement the Chief Minister’s vision. This programme was just a start and the first phase of a comprehensive sanitation plan,” he added. The Local Government minister said the Suthra Punjab programme was quite successful, but we will learn lessons from the challenges faced during the cleaning campaign and move forward. Punjab’s population of more than 127 million creates 57,500 tonnes of waste every day. We are able to dispose of only eighteen thousand 438 tons of garbage. This means that the load of forty-nine thousand tons of waste is increasing every day, he pointed out. Moreover, the minister told the media that tonnes of waste was disposed of in Lahore during the last 30 days. Zeeshan Rafique resolved that with the support of political determination, media and people, the government would be successful, God willing. At present, 229 municipal institutions of Punjab are providing services to 19.5 million people annually, while eight waste management companies are reaching out to about 26 million people. Time has come for all stakeholders to step forward to make Punjab a clean province and Pakistan a beautiful country, he said.
The minister, while pointing out that municipal services fees are charged worldwide, stressed that outsourcing cleaning services will help in achieving cleaning goals. He said that more than garbage collection, its safe dumping and treatment of sewage water is the real challenge. We are going to introduce modern and world class technology for proper dumping. Minister of Local Government said that segregation of waste is necessary before dumping it and for this purpose the location of 66 transfer stations has been identified in Punjab. On a question, Zeeshan Rafique said that Muslim League-N believes in conducting local body elections. Punjab government is working in this regard. During the press conference, he also extended Easter greetings to the Christian community, particularly Christian staff of the Local Government Department.
