Maryam sets 15-day deadline to fix Punjab sanitation

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has set a 15-day deadline for a 100 percent improvement in cleanliness across the province, chairing a review of the Suthra Punjab programme in Lahore on Monday.

The meeting considered discontinuing solid waste management companies over unsatisfactory performance and decided to shift to self-operation in Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan, Daily Times reported.

Maryam Nawaz expressed concern over dust and dirt on roads and ordered that main roads be washed daily and that strict action follow cleaning operations against littering. She directed that fines be imposed on those dumping garbage in markets, bazaars, and vegetable, fruit and grain markets. The meeting also took up fines for owners of vacant plots where rubbish is found.

Targets were set to ensure adequate manpower and machinery in every district. Villages are to be cleaned on alternate days, and deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners were told to meet Field Monitoring Officers every week. Key Performance Indicators will be introduced to assess those officers.

The chief minister directed that sanitation workers be paid on time in every city and locality. Deputy commissioners were asked for details of the machinery their districts need and for a final record of savings achieved through self-operation, and all of them were told to physically verify the equipment available to them. The deputy commissioners of Multan, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Hafizabad, Muzaffargarh and other districts presented reports on sanitation arrangements. A follow-up meeting to review progress is due after one week.

In a separate message on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, Maryam Nawaz said her government was committed to press freedom and to protecting journalists' rights. Threats, violence and harassment against journalists were unacceptable, she said, and those responsible for crimes against media workers must be brought to justice. She said journalists in Punjab were safe and that her government would keep working to give them an environment in which to work freely, and she repeated a commitment to help homeless journalists own a home.