HYDERABAD: The Administrator Hyderabad Captain (Retd) Altaf Hussain Saryo on Thursday vowed to restore the lost glory of the historic city by improving the performance of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
“We are living in the 21st century amidst outdated
standards and there is the need to introduce new technologies to
provide basic civic facilities to the citizens as being exercised by
the other countries of the world”, he said while addressing the
members of Hyderabad Chamber of Small Traders and Small
Industry here.
At present, he said, 70 percent of the total
available vehicles of HMC needed repair and maintenance and there were
only six to seven hundred trolleys available for lifting garbage from
roads and streets.
Besides repair and maintenance of faulty vehicles,
HMC required four hundred more vehicles with POL allocations for
disposal of garbage, he said.
The estimated cost of monthly fuel expenses of HMC is around
rupees seven to eight million.
Similarly, he informed that around two thousand
sanitary workers were required to ensure cleanliness as compared to 15
to 20 sanitary workers engaged in each union council.
The monthly expenses of HMC were Rs. 140 million of which, the provincial
government was providing Rs. 125 million, he said and added that despite
the facts, all out efforts were being made to ensure cleanliness of the
city.
He called upon the citizens, particularly the business
community, to extend their support to HMC so that the corporation
could be able to restore the lost glory of one of the historic cities
of the country.
“Our liabilities have surged to Rs.360 million but the HMC’s annual
income is Rs.130 million. Our expenses are higher and I don’t
understand why the HMC has been overstaffed, ” he said.
The chamber’s Muhammad Nasir drew his attention towards the issues of
street lights, lack of desilting of the drains, encroachment and open
manholes.
The HCSTSI’s former President Doulat Ram Lohano said the chamber had
several times requested the HMC not to dump solid waste outside the
schools but, he lamented, no heed was paid to the request.
Earlier, President HCSTSI Saleemuddin Qureshi in his
welcome address highlighted the civic issues being faced by the
citizens and demanded Sindh Chief Minister to provide
sufficient grant to HMC to address the grievances of the citizens.