RECORDER REPORT

HYDERABAD: Muttah-ida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) MNAs have expressed fear that the low lying areas in Hyderabad will become submerged in rainwater because the local authorities have not started desilting of the drains.

Talking to a delegation of the traders at their office here on Sunday, MNAs Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani and Salahuddin said despite their efforts to draw attention of the provincial government towards the issue, the desilting had not been started.

They said Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC), Water and Sanitation

Agency (WASA) and the district administration were responsible for carrying the task.

“There are fears that the storm drains will overflow and bring the low lying areas under water during the monsoon rains,” they said, adding that in such situations the local residents and the traders suffer hundreds of million of rupees losses.

The MNAs, whose party is an ally of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the federal government, urged the centre to play a role in that regard to protect the people from trouble and losses.

“The Sindh government and the local administration are working on an agenda of racism and we can’t leave the city on the mercy of such racist rulers,” Qaimkhani and Salahuddin said.

They said the weather experts had forecast torrential downpour in the upcoming monsoon rains which might wreak havoc if drainage arrangements were not made ahead of the time.

The MNAs demanded accountability and strict action against the Sindh government’s officials in Hyderabad who were embezzling the public funds which were meant for desilting the drains.

“The funds are misappropriated under the heads of machinery, fuel, labour and garbage disposal,” they noted and asked the Sindh government to make the process of utilization of funds for the said works completely transparent.