MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government has launched the ‘Suthra Kashmir’ programme under which solid waste management services will be outsourced at the district level, with advertisements inviting private parties to provide the services to be published within a week.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Local Government and Rural Development (LG&RD) Secretary Irshad Ahmed Qureshi and attended by senior officials, mayors, district council chairmen, chief officers and other representatives of local governments.
The initiative comes five months after an integrated solid waste management project was inaugurated in Muzaffarabad in April this year.
The projeet had been conceived in 2016 but remained dormant for nearly a decade. Despite the launch of the project in April this year, solid waste management remains a major challenge in the city. Under the new programme, Mr Qureshi said, government institutions would perform regulatory functions while private parties would be engaged through formal agreements for service delivery. He said the private parties would provide machinery, vehicles and manpower wherever required under the agreements, while a uniform system of machinery and uniforms for sanitary workers would be introduced across AJK.
The secretary said the government had included the Suthra Kashmir programme, establishment of green areas, purchase of new operational vehicles for solid waste management, development of model villages and measures for beautification of cities in its 100-day plan.
He said a comprehensive plan was being prepared for collection of solid waste throughout AJK in accordance with the prime minister’s special directives.
The programme would also extend to villages, where household waste would be collected in coordination with elected local government representatives, youth councillors and women councillors, he added. Heads of the municipal bodies of Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Haveli and Sudhnoti welcomed the programme and said their institutions were willing to work with the private sector in solid waste management. Tariq Naqash