After taking over the reign of city government, the elected
Mayor Waseem Akhtar has so far appeared legitimately unable and logically incapable to
deliver the goods. Compared to his predecessors he has not given any
significant performance and really exposed himself as an aimless rather
powerless authority. However, for that he has to blame himself.
When the new Mayor took the oath some nine months ago he knew
his limitations in terms of finances and administration. He should have
realised that as the head of the city' premier civic body he first had to made his
Corporation revenue-wise sustainable and functionally viable because in the
absence of funding from provincial government for development works and
municipal services, neither he nor the KMC can perform smartly. But instead in
a hurry, he announced a 100-days cleanliness drive in city being fully aware of
his capacity and resources. The result, the drive hardly bore any fruit after
the completion of tenure today.
Mounts of garbage can be
seen throughout the city. Almost all the main thoroughfares of the city, internal
roads, green belts expose the un-removed garbage and wastes which is further growing
on daily basis. Garbage bins are missing in streets and trash material was open
before residents and commuters. The conditions of public and street parks are
extremely pathetic and their serenity has gone away. The municipal performance
of KMC was badly exposed in rainfall during December when the city was remained
flooding with rain water for several days.
Not a single insecticide spray drive was carried out in the city
because of which mosquitoes and other insects are rampant and causing diseases.
Thousands of cases of Chickungunya were reported only in Malir for which
hundreds of people lost their lives. Similarly in a sizable quantity, patients
suffering from dengue fever and malaria can seen waiting in queue in every
single clinic and hospital for medication and treatments. Overall the city is
currently miles away from any health and hygiene standards
Several bitten cases from rabid dogs have been reported but the
KMC never attempted any move to counter the rabid dogs and other infected
animals. In four DMCs namely Central, South, Korangi and East citizens are reportedly
feared rabid dogs in large quantity and complained several times to concerned
authorities but no action has been taken.
Interestingly, when the KMC authorities foresaw that their
100-day cleanliness drive would not meet to success, they backtracked from
their words and claimed that the drive was limited to a handful of selected Union
Councils rather the entire city. Their excuse is hardly unacceptable.
There is no doubt under the new Sindh Local Government Ordinance
lots of civil functions has been taken away from the city administration and the
powers of the city Mayor has been sizably curtailed. But still there are a lot
of duties and responsibilities before him to perform and to assert his
authority. The cleanliness drive from the new Mayor was a deliberate move to
assert his authority. But to be honest, for the failure of cleanness drive the city
mayor cannot be given any clean chit.
By
Editorial, Infocus
No comments:
Post a Comment