The victims of Karachi’s Orangi and Gujjar nullah evictions will be paid Rs15,000 every month for two years, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah announced on Tuesday.
The decision was made in a provincial cabinet meeting and it was agreed that the evacuees will be given residential units in the Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme as well.
Sindh Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah briefed in the meeting that 344 houses near the Gujjar nullah and 60 houses and six factories near the Orangi nullah have been demolished in the encroachment drive so far. Shah further said that the Sindh government will ask the Centre for a Rs300,000 subsidy and provide 30,000 residential units to the victims. The land for these units will be provided by the Sindh govt.
He explained that after the 2020 monsoon rains in Karachi, the Supreme Court had instructed the administration to remove encroachments along the nullahs and clean them. Then, in September, the same year, PM Imran Khan a Rs1.13 trillion package for the city.
After this, the Provincial Coordination and Implementation Committee was formed by the Sindh CM.
The PCIC was handed the responsibility of cleaning the stormwater drains. The NED University of Engineering and Technology was selected to conduct the hydraulic and hydrological surveys of the nullahs.
The minister added that the Sindh government has filed three petitions in the Supreme Court requesting the provision of Rs10 billion Bahria Town funds. “This amount will be used in the compensation of the victims.”
