Metros and
Daanish schools are the pet projects of Punjab Chief Minister and billions of
rupees have been spent on them. Two recent news reports are showing another
picture of these projects.
The title of
first report is “Daanish school building crumbles within a year of opening”.
According to the report within a year of its inauguration by Punjab Chief
Minister in 2013, the building started crumbling, with major cracks in walls
and beams and leaking pipes and roofs – forcing management to close down its
two dining halls.
A
report by
the Chief Minister Inspection Team, which investigated the faults and
causes says: “The errors (cracks) that have appeared in these buildings
are of
serious and unique nature and cannot be rectified with confidence.
Precious lives
are at stake, which cannot be left to chance”. Thus partial closure of
the
residential school has been ordered by the Daanish Schools Authority.
The report
has also raised serious concerns about soil survey, building and structural
design, material used in the buildings and non-supervision of the work, terming
all these factors major causes of the start of collapse of the building that
had cost the nation Rs698m within a year.
According to
another report after recent rains the underground metro bus stations of
Rawalpindi/ Islamabad Metro at 6th Road and I.J. Principal Road were inundated
with rain water and created problems for passengers as escalators went out of
order. Rain also exposed the poor drainage system on elevated roads.
At the
Committee Chowk to Warris Khan Section of the metro bus, the contractor was
still installing drainage pipes and work is still going on in the Liaquat Bagh
Section.
The above
reports show the manner in which projects are conceived and implemented in
Punjab. We remember what earlier happened to
Sassty Roti project. Is there any authority in Pakistan that can take notice of
robbing tax payers of their money on extravagant and badly conceived projects
and stop the plundering of county’s resources.
Tasneem Hameed
