Islamabad: Gilani directs CDA to treat all sectors equally

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Fazal Sher
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to provide all basic facilities to the residents.

The authority must look after both the posh areas as well as slums of the city, Gilani said while inaugurating the Islamabad Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in Sector I-9.

He directed provision of gas, power and other basic facilities to the slums and stressed the need for overcoming the increasing shortage of residential units in the city by launching new sectors. He said under his initiative one million residential units would be constructed across the country to meet the shortage.

He said the slain party chairwoman, Benazir Bhutto, had asked him to discipline the party, therefore, every party worker must adhere to the party discipline and act responsibly to convey an impression to the electorate that PPP was a disciplined party.

He said this when some party workers raised slogans against CDA Chairman Tariq Mehmood Khan demanding his dismissal.

Gilani said that Tariq Mehmood could not be by dint of sloganeering, as his stay in job depended on his performance. The premier said that he had highest regard for bureaucracy.

Those who perform to the satisfaction of the government and the electorate would be honored, while those failing to live up to expectations would be put out to grass,” the premier emphasized.

Tariq Mehmood Khan said that the Rs 2.72 billion plant was capable of treating 17 million gallons of sewage per day. The plant, built by a French firm in 26 months, would treat the sewage of 25 sectors.

Khan said that the STP was a project of Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) mainly funded by the French government. The project consists of four phases. Phase-I and Phase-II, having the capacity to treat four million gallons of sewage per day, were set up in early 60s and were meant to treat the sewage of sectors up to seven series. Later on, the project remained dysfunctional for a long time.

Tariq Mehmood said that Phase-III, meant for 8 and 9 series sectors, remained incomplete due to some contractual problems.

The CDA chairman said that an affordable and sustainable process for treatment of the municipal waste had been adopted and water would be treated as per environmentally acceptable standards before discharging into Leh Nullah.

He said the CDA was sparing no effort to develop more residential sectors in the city to overcome shortage of residential units. “The allottees of I-16 are getting possession of their plots, while development of D-12 would be completed by June this year,” he added.

He said the CDA was planning to establish two more weekly bazaars and a food street besides installing water filtration plants across the federal capital.

French ambassador Daniel Jouanneau said that his government funded the project for a clean and green Islamabad. “Better environment is our mission. Water is life and we want to help Pakistan in this regard,” the ambassador said.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan, Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Secretary Cabinet Division Zafar Mehmood and Senator Nayyar Bukhari were also present on the occasion.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg11_1