KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday highlighted the five-year performance of his government.
In a press conference at the CM House here, He asked the media to compare the performance of his government with other provincial governments.
He said the law and order situation especially in Karachi in the form of street crimes remained a major challenge for his government. Though organised crime was reduced to a great extent, but street crimes are yet to be dealt with effectively.
He said government of Sindh introduced multiple reforms in police in the fields of governance, infrastructure, and IT, which played a pivotal role in combating terrorism and heinous crimes in the province. He said murder rate decreased from 854 (in 2018) to 733 (in 2022)). Terrorism incidents also decreased significantly from 51 (2013) to 01 (2023).
He said the floods of 2022 brought unimaginable devastation, causing loss of lives, homes, and livelihoods. The floods that struck Sindh caused massive devastation, impacting 70 percent of the province. Over 2 million houses were damaged or destroyed, leaving 12 million people homeless and vulnerable.
The Sindh government provided support to the affected people. It also provided farmers with free seeds, raised wheat support prices, and took measures to ensure water availability during the sowing season.
Within a record time of three months, the government of Sindh worked with development partners, especially the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, in conceiving projects of about US$ 2 billion for post-flood recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction.
He said the Sindh government launched the Sindh Peoples Housing for Flood Affectees (SPHF) with the support from World Bank. This initiative aims to construct 2.1 million multi-hazard resilient houses, employing a beneficiary-driven approach. As of this moment, remarkable progress has been achieved, with 1.3 million validations already concluded. The diligent efforts continue, with the objective of finalizing all 2.1 million validations by the conclusion of August.
He said the government also expanded Sindh Emergency Rescue Service 1122 in 9 additional districts. Further, 15 satellite stations on highways and motorways will also be established to address the causalities of road accidents.
From Covid’19 pandemic to the deadly floods, Shah forthrightly briefs the public on the performance of his government.
He said Emergency Food Assistance Project (EFAP) of Rs46.3 billion was started with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Under this project, 1662km of roads badly affected by the floods of 2022 would be reconstructed.
The Sindh government prioritized the health sector and doubled the budget. It vaccinated 38 million individuals against COVID-19 achieving a fully vaccinated coverage of 102% for the age of 12 plus years population.
He said the government of Sindh achieved 68 percent fully immunized coverage of children aged 12-23 months. Our Oral Poliovirus Vaccine coverage stands at 91 percent with zero cases reported in the last two years.
In the past year, a fleet of 230 ambulances was added to the health system through Sindh Emergency Service Rescue 1122 with a Central Command and Control Headquarters in Karachi.
He said for the Sindh government, SIUT is another success story that has now progressed to over 1200-bedded comprehensive healthcare systems with 72 departments and has become one of the largest institutions for kidney-related diseases. It is the largest centre of dialysis with more than 400 dialysis machines providing treatment to over 1300 patients daily in 9 centres.
With the help of the government of Sindh, SIUT Larkana has started a dialysis facility along with lab and radiology support. Around 11,000 dialysis sessions were performed in 2022.
The Sindh govt established a 200 bedded children’s hospital with facilities for pediatric surgery, pediatric medicine Burns Unit, Paeds ICU, Neonatal ICU, dental department, and Paeds dialysis
Similar to SIUT, NICVD Karachi has been upgraded to a world-class Cardiovascular Diseases hospital. In July 2017, NICVD launched its initiative of 100 percent free-of-cost services at Karachi, and all its Satellite Centres and Chest Pain Units.
Around 132,497 angioplasties have been performed in last five years. Satellite Centres have now been created throughout the province including; Sukkur, Larkana, Tando Muhammad Khan, Hyderabad, Mithi, Nawabshah, Sehwan, Khairpur and Lyari.
Talking about education sector, he said about 3.5 million children were out of school due to the shortage of teachers and around 5500 schools were closed. The devastating floods of 2022 further exacerbated the situation by damaging more than 50% of schools.
To uplift the education department and to provide education to all, 60,000 teachers have been appointed and 700 schools have been upgraded to secondary and higher secondary level. As many as 5300 schools and 700 shelter-less schools have been constructed; 4100 high schools have been rehabilitated, and 3075 schools have opened.
Furthermore, Sindh College Talent Hunt Program and Digital Libraries are flagship programs of the College Education Department. The establishment of 4 public sector Universities - Shaikh Ayaz University Shikarpur, Begum Nusrat Bhutto University, - Government College University Hyderabad, and Shaheed Allah Bux University Art Design and Heritage Jamshoro - reflects Sindh government’s commitment to expanding higher education opportunities. The government has also approved the construction of one medical college in Thatta and Mehran University campus in Ghotki.
He said Sindh government boosted the energy sector and during the last 5 years, 19 schemes with an expenditure of Rs.7.293 billion have been completed.
He said 627 schemes have been completed through the Local Government Department in the past 5 years for Rs 90.404 billion. These schemes are spread throughout the entire province.
For Karachi, the allocation has increased from Rs.53 billion in 2018-19 to Rs.78.762 billion in 2022-23 under Provincial ADP. The utilization was only Rs.14.6 billion in 2018-19 which increased to Rs.40.770 billion in 2022-23.
Hence a total of Rs.253.663 billion has been allocated out of which Rs. 113.420 billion were spent on the development of Karachi in the last five years under ADP only. Rs.19.419 billion was allocated for district ADP Karachi.
Over the last five years 461 schemes worth Rs. 60.446 billion have been completed to specifically cater to the ever-growing development needs of the city.
Moreover, Karachi Mega Project was launched in 2017 to execute mega projects in the city. Through this project over Rs. 30 billion have been spent on the city’s infrastructure development in the last five years.
He said the government of Sindh has also played a significant role in promoting and harnessing Information, Science, and Technology to improve communication, transparency, and public engagement.
He said Special Education and Rehabilitation Centres are providing service to 4200 children.
The govt has taken the lead by establishing an internationally acknowledged Centre for Autism Rehabilitation (C-ARTS) for Autism Rehabilitation.
It is providing free of cost rehabilitation, educational, and skill training, etc. It comprises of 3 Centres with an enrolment of 2300.
Talking about the irrigation department, he said the receipts of irrigation water were reduced to about 75 percent of allocation according to the Water Apportionment Accord of 1991. The status of maintenance of the canal system, specifically at the lower tier level, i.e., distributions and minors deteriorated due to deferred maintenance.
Sindh Water Policy has been approved by Sindh Cabinet. Efforts were taken to obtain the due share of Irrigation Water at the level of IRSA and CCI.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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