Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi has once again sought public help and cooperation in civic body’s efforts to maintain cleanliness and develop and promote a healthy environment in the metropolis. Speaking at the launching ceremony of the ‘Sanitation Helpline 1334’ here on Monday, he said that the residents of the capital would now get a quick response to their complaints with regard to removal of garbage from their localities. The CDA chairman said that like all municipalities in the world, the CDA also strives to maintain cleanliness in the city. For this purpose, it has assigned the task of collection and disposal of garbage to 2,200 sanitary workers. Out of these 2,200 sanitary workers, 1,300 are regular employees of the CDA while the rest have been working on the basis public-private partnership.
“These employees, supported by the mechanised fleet of various types of vehicles, including dumpers, compactors, trolleys and others, collect as much as 600 tons of garbage daily from all over the city, which is dumped in the new open garbage dumping site in Sector I-14,” the chairman said. “Garbage is not left there to rot and stink, but the CDA has made arrangements of its onward disposal through an agreement signed with the Fauji Cement Factory, whose staff ferries garbage every morning and use it as fuel in their factory,” he said. He said: “We have been launching various cleanliness campaigns with full support and collaboration of citizens. But, we feel that those have not produced the desired results and eventually fade away after a short period of time. Our endeavour is to inculcate a sense of responsibility in the hearts and minds of the residents of the city in a way that they should feel it as their responsibility to keep the environment clean and healthy,” he said.
He said that while the staff of the CDA Sanitation Directorate along with those engaged on contract basis from public-private parties are trying to do their best in maintaining cleanliness in the city. It is obviously an uphill task to keep up with the standards because of the ever-increasing population and commercial activities in the federal capital. “There are at least 100 sanitary workers deployed in each sector who collect and properly dispose of garbage from all over the city at least twice a day. But their efforts seem inadequate because of non-cooperation from citizens. So, we are running mass awareness campaigns at all levels, through direct contact, media campaigns and other such activities,” the chairman said.
“I think that with the launching of the ‘Sanitation Helpline 1334’, we can expect better results as people can always make a phone call to the helpline and identify where they are facing any problem related to the sanitation department. Our team has set ‘30 minutes’ as the response time to any such call during which the problem pointed out will be taken care of. This, I believe, will certainly help us in keeping our city more clean and enhance the efficiency of the CDA Sanitation Directorate,” he said. The chairman said that the CDA has launched a new campaign under which authorised staffers of the CDA Sanitation Directorate have been entrusted with powers to impose an anti-littering fine ranging from Rs50 to Rs300 on people found involved in littering at public places as well as on roads and in streets.
“These CDA officials will be in uniform. They will first inform the people involved in littering about the adverse impact of littering on society. This campaign, which has been already launched, will continue for a month or so in Super Market, Jinnah Super Market and Markaz F-10 in the first phase. After that they will start imposing the prescribed fines on violators under Section 5(29) of the CDA’s Environmental Protection Regulations 2008,” the chairman said. He said that besides littering, similar laws would be applicable on dumping and disposal of building material in streets and on roads that may cause hindrance in way of free and uninterrupted movement of people and vehicles. Director General Civic Management Rawal Khan Maitla, Director Sanitation Captain (r) Faiz Muhammad, Director Public Relation Asim Khichi and Deputy Director Public Relation Ramzan Sajid and Assistant Director Media Malik Saleem Akhtar were also present on this occasion.
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