LAHORE: Local Government Minister Zeeshan Rafique has announced that sale points set up for sacrificial animals will become functional across Punjab from Friday, June 7.
To provide relief to the public, the sale points would be operated on no-profit no loss basis.
During his visit to Faisalabad with Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Political Affairs Zeeshan Ashiq Malik he presided over a meeting of district officers and public representatives at the commissioner’s office and said that for effective cleaning arrangements on Eid-ul-Azha, the leaves of municipal staff had been banned for 13 days. This ban will start 10 days before and three days after the Eid.
During the meeting at the commissioner’s office, Suthra Punjab programme and the Eid cleaning plan was also reviewed. Commissioner Faisalabad Silwat Saeed, Deputy Commissioner Abdullah Neyar Sheikh and chief officers of municipal bodies gave briefing.
Addressing the meeting, Provincial Local Government Minister Zeeshan Rafique said that the g
oal of the Suthra Punjab program is to dump more than 57,000 tons of garbage being produced daily across the province. “Like other modern countries of the world, Punjab also needs to implement a long-lasting sanitation system. Outsourcing model is being introduced for the purpose,” he figured out.
He said that the process of pre-qualification of outsourcing for standard cleaning system has been completed. Zeeshan Rafique further said that for the first time, “we are introducing a uniform sanitation system for both urban and rural areas. Previously, municipal services never reached the villages even though the majority of the population lives in the villages,” he regretted.
He said that with the efforts of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, rural areas are also being focused. “If the sanitation program is outsourced, the available human resources will be entrusted to the contractors, however, he said clarifying that the performance of each contractor will be monitored by the Punjab government itself.