KARACHI: Sindh Cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at CM House here on Wednesday approved enhancement in compensation rate for the civilian victims of various acts of terrorism, bomb blast, natural calamities, natural disasters and others by many folds, including for the bread earner.

The meeting was attended by all the provincial ministers, advisors, chief secretary and concerned officers.

The home department on the directives of the chief minister had held a meeting in March 2020 to discuss the proposal of revisiting the compensation rates to the civilian victims of various acts of terrorism, bomb blast, natural calamities, natural disasters and others.

The home department submitted the proposal for enhancement of compensation which the cabinet approved after discussion. It is as follows:

The compensation for loss of life due to terrorist act has been enhanced from Rs500,000 to Rs1 million. The rate of innocent victims of cross fire enhanced from Rs200,000 to Rs500,000. Rate of victims of target killing increased from Rs200,000 to Rs500,000.

The rate of minor injured due to terrorist activities retained at Rs100,000 while there was no compensation for injured due to terrorist activities has been fixed at Rs200,000. The rate of permanent disability due to terrorist acts has also been enhanced from Rs200,000 to Rs400,000.

The compensation of loss of life of bread earner) in case of natural calamities, disasters and other causes have been enhanced from Rs100,000 to Rs200,000 and rate of loss of life of non-bread earner enhanced from Rs30,000 to Rs100,000.

The compensation rate for the families who suffer losses due to natural calamities, disasters and other causes such as full amount/compensation has been enhanced from Rs5,000 to Rs50,000. 50 percent of actual loss subject to maximum of Rs200,000 has been enhanced to Rs500,000. Rate of actual 50 percent loss calculated at Rs10,000 to Rs60,00 has been fixed at Rs50,000 to Rs100,000. Similarly, loss between Rs60,000 to Rs100,000 has been enhanced to Rs100,000 to Rs300,000 and the loss of Rs100,000 and above has been enhanced to Rs300,000 and above.

Law & Order: Inspector general of Police Mushtaq Maher giving presentation to the cabinet on law and order said that terrorism incident have been controlled completely. He added that 10 persons were killed in target killing in 2019 while only two persons killed in 2020. Some 944 murders were reported in 2019 and 786 in 2020. 75 cases of extortion were reported in 2019 and 76 in 2020 while kidnapping for ransom were recorded at 28 in 2019 but they have been increased to 106 in 2020. The reason behind more kidnapping cases was trapping the people by talking them in women's voices on their mobile phone by dacoits. This trend increased in rural areas and now it has been controlled to some extent.

The cabinet was told that 3966 proclaimed offenders and 7934 absconders have been arrested and recovered 4297 arms and ammunition between January to June 30, 2020. It was pointed out that they confiscated 448,350 liters of Iranian diesel and arrested 186 culprits involved in the smuggling.

Giving police performance, the IG said that the police conducted 749 encounters, busted 537 gangs, arrested 8112 street criminals, killed 21 street dacoits and 6504 criminals were arrested.

Street Crime: Adl IG Karachi Ghulam Nabi Memon told the cabinet that the reason for street crime was drug addicts living on the roads and streets. He said that whenever strict operations against drug addicts have been launched the street crime has come down. According to him the theft and crime activities are the main source of living and purchasing of drugs.

He said that during 2020 908 robbers were arrested, of them 152 were released within a week, 114 in two week, 140 within a month, 163 in three months, 183 in six months, 156 over six month and in this all of them were released on bail. Memon disclosed that 2455 complaints had filed applications against street criminals, of them only 475 agreed to register FIRs.

The chief minister directed IG Police to strengthen the investigation branch and set up separate cadre, if necessary. He also urged him to upgrade his 2G locators to 4G locators, and enhance the number of crime scene units from eight to 13 and establish fingerprint mechanism.

The chief minister categorically said that he would take action against the concerned police officers from where a person was kidnapped. He directed IG police to inform his SHOs all over Sindh, particularly in Karachi not to allow encroachment, otherwise he would take strict action against them.

Security featured number plate: The Sindh Chief Minister, keeping in view theft, misuse and abuse of the vehicles, had approved Rs400 million to introduce security featured number plates in the province.

The Excise & taxation Department held a meeting with National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), an entity of the Ministry of Defence. The NRTC said that the automatic number plates recognition (ANPR) was increasingly used by government, law enforcement agencies, safe city authorities and private sector operators to enhance policing of roads, identifying and monitoring criminal activity in counter terrorism. The number plate has a template of Ajrak and Mazar-e-Quaid. The cabinet approved the proposal but asked the department to once again discuss its final feature in the sub-committee of the cabinet.

Minister Excise Mukesh Kumar Chawla gave a presentation on the security featured number plates to the cabinet. The number plate has BRT Common Corridor: Minister Transport Awais Qadir Shah said that Rs 1 billion has been approved as bridge financing to SIDCL subject to the condition that these estimates to be jointly signed by both consultants of BRT Green Line and BRT Red Line. The cabinet committee under Imtiaz Shaikh had recommended bridge financing for the common corridor of BRT Red Line and Green Line for construction of the Mezzanine floor. The cabinet also approved the recommendation of the sub-committee

Incentive for Construction Industry: The Minister Revenue, Makhdoom Mahboob told the cabinet that the federal government has announced a package for the construction sector. The federal government has requested all the provincial governments to club all provincial, municipal taxes, duties, fees, levies, charges on transfer/registration of urban properties under one head and charge them at the rate of 2 percent of the valuation.

The cabinet approved the proposal and directed SMBR to examine the status of all the taxes, if amendment was required in the law then it would be referred to the assembly, otherwise its notifications should be issued.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020