City Nazim lashes out at media
Karachi: City Nazim, Syed Mustafa Kamal, on Saturday, lashed out at the print and electronic medi@ and said there was no need to watch foreign TV channels and that local channels were destabilising the nation.
He expressed his resentment saying that these local channels never show the positive development works being done in the city. Instead, he said, they are creating chaos, and claimed that there are some forces which are making an attempt to destabilise the situation.
He made these strongly-worded observations about the electronic and print media while launching the ballot scheme of the Hawkesbay Scheme 42 of the Lyari Development Authority (LDA) here at the Civic Centre Karachi on Saturday. He asked the people, sitting under a huge tent at the ceremony, if they could tell that an emergency or martial law had been imposed in the country.
The Nazim said that since last few days he had stopped viewing the channels just for the reason that they did not show any development, and just chaos and confusion. He told the audience that he needed their help and that they should own the developments taking place in the city.
He also said that whenever you see a city page in the newspaper it put forward a war-like situation.
A TV channel reporter, after the LDA launching ceremony, commented to the Nazim that his views about the TV channels were very harsh. The Nazim replied that what he had said had no kind of hidden angle to it.
While speaking at this launching ceremony, he said that the city government has signed an agreement with a Norwegian company for the setting up of a desalination plant at Hawkesbay and they have been given 100 acres of land for this purpose. The company will produce 50 million gallons of water daily. Therefore, he said, the water problem that was present before the launching of the scheme would be resolved.
This company will start the supply of water within two years. The engineers of the company, he said, were on ground and this would be the first ever desalination plant at Hawkesbay and the name of the company is Aqua Link.
He further said this scheme had two big hurdles in the development of the project Mauripur Truck stand and various god owns at the entry of this scheme. He said now 500 and 100 separate acres of land had been provided for the purpose of Truck stand and god owns where they would be constructed. Now the residential houses could be developed in this area.
He further said that there was also a sewerage project, costing Rs8 billion, which has been approved by the federal government, under which the city government would lay sewerage lines in this scheme.
The Nazim said that negotiations were under way with another Norwegian firm for another desalination plant costing Rs200 million. The Nazim stressed that the city government had a pragmatic approach and said that all these developments would be monitored by him personally.
Kamal said that he was not worried about criticism over development and said that on Sunday he would also be working and would sign a MoU with a Chinese firm for solid waste management and this firm would keep the city clean on modern hues and techniques.
He said that the cost of the project was $250 million and this firm would collect garbage from the doorsteps and take it to the landfill sites. He termed this project as a historic one for Karachi.
Kamal, in February last, had given solid waste contracts to private firms in the town, which has now miserably failed, though few towns are still working under this project.
Source: Dawn
Date:11/11/2007
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