KARACHI - Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Justice (Retd) Maqbool Baqar during a rain emergency meeting at CM House decided to issue displeasure letters to the Deputy Inspector General of Police and Director General of Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) for failing to respond in time.
The Chief Minister has put all the civic agencies/local bodies, PDMA, traffic police, and water board on high alert to deal with cloud bursts/heavy rain situations properly. Necessary measures will be taken to clear all the major and minor arteries of the city, according to a CM House communique on Sunday. The meeting was attended by Minister Information Ahmad Shah, Mayor Karachi Murtaza Wahab, IG Police Riffat Alam, Commissioner Karachi Saleem Rajput, CEO of Water Board Salahuddin. Mayor Karachi Murtaza Wahab briefing the chief minister said that it was a cloud bust in the city which inundated main arteries. He added that he along with CEO Water Board Salahuddin visited various stormwater drains which were partially chocked with plastic shopper bags. He told the CM said that Shahrah-e-Faisal, particularly the area of the nursery, Drigh Road, and Old City areas, I.I Chundrigar Road some major nullas were not flowing at the required capacity, therefore he not only got them cleared but installed water board machinery to pump out stagnant water from the low lying areas.
The CM took serious notice of the absence of DIG traffic when all the traffic was blocked almost on all the main arteries of the city. He added that traffic police failed to manage the traffic in time, therefore the people of the city have suffered a lot. Baqar directed the Inspector General of Police, Riffat Mukhtar to issue a letter to the DIG Traffic and convey him his displeasure. “I am not happy with traffic management in the city, particularly on Saturday evening,” he said.
