The Sindh cabinet has ordered purchase of 5,000 coronavirus testing kits and has released Rs 100 million for adopting preventive measures against the virus in emergency. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said this while presiding over a cabinet meeting here at the CM House on Tuesday.
The cabinet meeting was also attended by the chief secretary, advisors and concerned secretaries. The chief minister said that when the first coronavirus case was detected, he started holding meetings and formed a task force under him.
"I am holding regular meetings of the task force in which all the concerned people, including experts/doctors, airport and aviation authorities, FIA, NADRA, WHO are on board," he said and added so far 53 tests have been conducted, of them only two tests were positive.
He also disclosed that isolation wards have been established in nine hospitals with 118 beds. Syed Murad Ali Shah added that Indus Hospital and Aga Khan Hospital were helping the government a lot. "I have assigned the work to Indus Hospital to look after the entire coronavirus issue right from conducting test, keeping the suspects in isolation and providing treatment and his government would give them a Rs 100 million grant for purchase of kits and other necessary equipment," he said.
The cabinet approved release of Rs 100 million and purchase of 5,000 testing kits. The local government department presented a draft Sindh Water Act-2020 regarding use of ground and surface water for commercial purpose. The chief minister said that the ground water and agriculture water were being dealt by different departments; therefore this task could not be transferred to a single authority.
The chief minister constituted a committee under him as chairman and chief secretary, minister of local government, minister of Irrigation, minister of agriculture and minister of public health as members to review the draft law and may form a separate body to regulate the matters of ground water. The Sindh agriculture department informed the cabinet that three phases of tractors purchase on government subsidy have been completed but the fourth phase came to a halt when NAB authorities took up the issue.
Under the plan 6200 tractors would be given on government subsidy. The government had released Rs 450 million to Sindh Bank for subsidy when phase-IV was halted. Now NAB had given guidelines under which the cabinet approved start of phase-IV.
The cabinet was told that the balloting for the applicants was done when the scheme was launched. The food department briefed the cabinet about wheat procurement plan for crop 2019-20. Under the plan, along with fair distribution of Bardana among growers, district-wise procurement target would be fixed on proportionate basis. The cabinet also approved purchase of 20 percent jute bags and 80 percent PP bags.
It was also decided that functional flour mills would be allowed to retain wheat stock for 90 days as per their sanctioned/grinding capacity. The food department proposed Rs 1,400 price of wheat per 40 kilograms. At this the chief minister said that the federal government has fixed Rs 1365 per 40 kg support price and was going to revise it.
He directed the chief secretary to coordinate with the federal government so that the Centre and the province(s) could fix the same minimum support price. He also said that this decision should be taken within the next four days because harvesting of wheat had already been started. The Sindh cabinet approved transfer of 1,530 acres of land located in Deh Gharo, Dhabeji District of Thatta, to Sindh Investment Department to establish it as China Economic Zone Dhabeji.
The cabinet also fixed the price of the land at 25 per cent of the market value of an acre which the Investment department would pay to the Revenue department and would start development of the economic zone. The Sindh Member of Board of Revenue and Secretary Investment briefed the cabinet about the rates. The chief minister said that the economic zone would open new vistas of employment opportunities and prosperity.
The Sindh cabinet, after thorough discussion, gave one more term to eight vice chancellors, Dr S.H Lodhi of NED University, Dr Aslam Uqaili of Mehran University, Prof. Parveen Shah of Shah Abdul Latif University, Prof. Bikha Ram of LUMHS Jamshoro, Prof. Nisar Siddiqui of IBA Sukkur, Prof. Tariq Rafi of JSM University, Dr Faizullah Abbasi of Dawood University and Dr Madad Ali Shah of BBS University Khairpur.
The campus of Sindh University was established at Mirpurkhas in 2009 which was offering bachelor's level and master's programmes. At present, the campus is running nine programmes of bachelor's and master's with an enrolment strength of 1,000 students.
The chief minister said that Mirpurkhas division had no full-fledged university therefore the Camps may be upgraded to the level of university. He added that Mirpurkhas division has three districts, Mirpurkhas itself, Tharparkar and Umerkot with a population of 4.5 million people. Therefore, such a huge population should have a university, he said.
The matter was supported by provincial minister Hari Ram who is MPA from Mirpurkhas and all the cabinet members supported the proposal. The University & Board presented draft bill of University of Mirpurkhas Act 2020 which the cabinet approved after thorough discussion. The cabinet directed the law department to examine the draft law and present it in the assembly.
The Sindh cabinet after thorough discussion approved the jurisdiction of Shaikh Ayaz University, Shikarpur. Under the jurisdiction all the degree colleges of Larkana division would be affiliated with Shaikh Ayaz University. The degree colleges/law colleges of the Larkana division are presently affiliated with Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, which falls in Sukkur Division.
Now, the public and private degree colleges/institutions/law colleges' affiliation with Shah Abdul Latif University would switch over to Shaikh Ayaz University, Shikarpur.
The cabinet approved the proposal. The Sindh Culture department presented the item of giving remuneration/fee to the members of the Sindh Board of Films Censors for Censorship of Films. The cabinet approved different rates for 12 categories, including feature film, feature produced abroad, feature film imported from abroad, feature film certification for cable TV, renewal of certification for additional period for imported and feature film on video cassette/DVD and others. The Sindh cabinet approved denotification of two additional advocate-generals and four assistant advocate-generals. The cabinet also exempted Dawat-e-Hadiya from stamp duty, registration fee and town tax on properties gifted to them.
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