Sindh minister calls Punjab’s power bills initiative political stunt

KARACHI,AUG 20(DNA): Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani Monday said that the provincial government and its Local Government Department are fully managing the situation developed in the aftermath of heavy monsoon rains in the entire Sindh.

The minister stated this while speaking at a press conference at the Sindh Assembly building on Monday. Ghani told media persons that rain had been continuing in the areas of District Dadu. While responding to a question, the minister said that they shouldn’t blindly follow the relief measures announced by the Punjab government. He said that the Punjab government would spend Rs 45 billion to subsidise the electricity cost for the consumers in the province for two months as nobody knew what would happen afterwards. He said that advertisements having billions of rupees cost were now being aired to publicise the Punjab government’s latest relief measure.

He said that a relief measure, which would last only for two months had been announced to secure political mileage. He told media persons that the Sindh government had always emphasised the steps required to ensure cheaper production of electricity in the country.

He said that the Sindh government hadn’t been allowed to act upon its plans to produce cheaper electricity in the country. He said that the people of the country should be given relief permanently in terms of electricity costs.

He said that a breach had occurred in the Dadu canal embankment and hopefully, it would be plugged in the next few hours. He said that all the de-watering machinery had been deployed to ensure drainage of rainwater in Johi.

The Local Government Minister said that Sukkur city had received heavy rain in the last 36 hours. He said that Sukkur had been affected by three heavy downpour spells of 281 to 292 millimetres of rain.

He conceded that the Meteorological Department and Deputy Commissioner in Sukkur had varying rain data. He said that the Meteorological Department didn’t have the rain measurement set up in every part of Sukkur. He informed media persons that the Sindh government had such arrangements to collect rain data in every taluka. He said that rainwater was still present in certain areas of Sukkur district as the drainage work was in progress.

He told journalists that drainage operations had been continuing in the areas of Station Ground, Qureshi Road, Lal Maskh, Bihar Colony, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Iron Road, and Sher Chowk areas of Sukkur and New Sukkur city. Similarly, drainage work has been continuing in the nearby areas affected by heavy rains including Saleh Pat, Rohri, Pano Aqal, and Tando Aliabad.

The Local Government Minister said that PPP’s certain political opponents had been giving foolish statements having no idea that rainwater accumulated on any road couldn’t be cleared during rain. He informed media persons that such a drainage operation had been launched once the rain stopped.

He said that mayors, chairmen of the municipal agencies, and personnel of the local government agencies had been collectively working to ensure emergency drainage of accumulated rainwater in the affected area. He said that as such there was no major issue anywhere in the province after heavy monsoon rains.

He said that the Sindh Chief Minister, Chief Sectary, and he had separately chaired various meetings to review the provincial government’s arrangements to tackle the rain emergency.

Ghani said that he had chaired one such meeting in Hyderabad where the officials of SEPCO and HESO had assured to ensure interrupted power supply to the pumping stations to ensure continuity of the drainage operation. He informed media persons that all the relevant agencies of the Sindh government were on high alert. He said that Larkana had also received heavy rains as the work had been continuing to drain water from its low-lying areas.