Erra asked to assign task to federal agency

Provincial Relief Commissioner, Syed Anwar Haider has asked the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Erra) that the clearance of relief consignments be assigned to some federal agency like Ports & Shipping wing of Ministry of Ports and Shipping or the Pakistan Customs.
In a letter to the Director General, TRC, Erra, he has said that due to non-co-operation and adamant behaviour of shipping companies the Sindh local government department was unable to get the consignments cleared.
Under the instructions of ERRA Sindh local government department is working for clearance of relief consignments from Karachi ports for earthquake affected people of northern areas.
The letter added that the consignments having complete documents had been cleared speedily as in the case of a rice consignment that arrived from Japan consisting 50 containers, which were cleared within two to three weeks.
However, consignments without original Bill of Lading and Packing List could not be cleared, as the shipping companies demanded original documents, it added.
"With the hectic efforts and co-ordination with different shipping companies, customs and port terminal operators the pending of relief consignments at Karachi ports has been reduced considerably," Anwar Haider wrote to ERRA. Still, 27 containers are stuck up at the ports.
He charged that the shipping companies were not co-operating in the relief operation. The shipping companies holding the relief consignments include: GAC Shipping, Inservey Pakistan, Reizda Shipping, Ravian International, Maersk Pakistan and UMA Shipping.
The letter by the provincial relief commissioner added that delay in clearance of these consignments was fatal for the relief goods, as three containers of medicines had already expired.
"If these relief consignments are not cleared promptly, the goods which mostly include food stuff and medicines would be of no use for the victims," said a senior official of the Sindh local government department.
It is further learnt that even after the containers are cleared by the shipping companies the customs and container terminals demand bribes for the clearance, which result in further delay.
A logistics agent who is looking after the clearance of relief consignments informed that they had to pay Rs 500 for each container as bribe despite the fact that these were not commercial cargo but relief goods.