Sindh Cabinet approves purchase of 5000 Coronavirus kits

• I am holding regular meetings of the Taskforce in which all the concerned people, including experts/doctors, airport and aviation authorities, FIA, NADRA, WHO are on board.
• I have assigned the work to Indus hospital to look after the entire Coronavirus issues right from conducting test.
• The government had released Rs 450 million to Sindh Bank for subsidy when the phase-IV was halted. Now the NAB has given guidelines under which the cabinet approved to start the phase-IV.

KARACHI: The Sindh Cabinet has ordered purchase of 5000 Coronavirus testing kits and has released Rs100 million for adopting preventive measures against the virus in emergency.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said this while presiding over the cabinet meeting here at CM’s House.

The cabinet was attended by the chief secretary, provincial ministers, advisors and concerned secretaries.

The chief minister said that when the first coronavirus case was diagnosed, he started holding meeting and formed a taskforce under him. “I am holding regular meetings of the Taskforce in which all the concerned people, including experts/doctors, airport and aviation authorities, FIA, NADRA, WHO are on board,” he said and added so far 53 tests have been conducted, of them only two tests were positive.

He also disclosed that isolation wards have been established in nine hospitals with 118 beds.

Syed Murad Ali Shah added that Indus Hospital and Aga Khan were helping a lot.

“I have assigned the work to Indus hospital to look after the entire Coronavirus issues right from conducting test, keeping the suspects in isolation and providing treatment and his government give them a Rs100 million grant for purchase of kits and other necessary equipment,” he said.

The cabinet approved release of Rs100 million and purchase of 5000 testing kits.

The local government department presented a draft Sindh Water Act-2020 regarding use of ground and surface water for commercial purpose.

The chief minister said that the ground water and agriculture water were being dealt by different department; therefore this task could not be transferred to a single authority.

The chief minister constituted a committee under him as chairman and chief secretary, minister local government, minister Irrigation, Minister Agriculture, Minister Public Health as members to review the draft law and may form a separate body to regulate the matters of ground water.

The Sindh agriculture department briefed the cabinet that three phases of tractors purchase on government subsidy have been completed and the fourth phase had come to standstill when the NAB authorities had taken up the issue.  Under the plan 6200 tractors would be given on government subsidy.

The government had released Rs 450 million to Sindh Bank for subsidy when the phase-IV was halted. Now the NAB has given guidelines under which the cabinet approved to start the phase-IV.

The cabinet was told that the balloting for the applicant who had applied for was done when the scheme was launched.

The food department briefed the cabinet about wheat procurement plan for crop 2019-20. Under the plan along with fair distribution of Bardana among growers, particularly district-wise procurement target would be fixed on proportionate basis.

The cabinet also approved to purchase 20 percent jute bags and 80 percent PP bags.

It was also decided that functional flour mills would be allowed to retain wheat stock for 90 days as per their sanctioned/grinding capacity.

The food department proposed Rs1400 price of wheat per 40 kilograms.

At this the chief minister said that the federal government has fixed Rs1365 per 40 kg support price and was going to revise it.

He directed chief secretary to coordinate with federal government so that center and the province(s) could fix the same minimum support price.

He also said that this decision should be taken within next four days because harvesting of wheat has already been started.

The Sindh cabinet approved transfer of 1530 acres of land located in Deh Gharo, Dhabeji District Thatta to Sindh Investment Department to establish it as China Economic Zone Dhabeji.

The cabinet also fixed the price of the land at 25 per cent of the market value of an acre which Investment department would pay to Revenue department and would start development of the economic zone.

The Sindh Member Board of Revenue and Secretary Investment briefed the cabinet about the rates, development.

The chief minister said that the economic zone would open new vistas of employment opportunities and prosperity.

The Sindh cabinet after thorough discussion has given another term to eight vice chancellors include Dr S.H Lodhi of NED University, Dr Aslam Uqaili of Mehran University, Prof. Parveen Shah of Shah Abdul Latif University, Prof. Bikha Ram of LUMHS Jamshoro, Prof. Nisar Siddiqui of IBA Sukkur, Prof, Tariq Rafi if JSM University, Dr faizullah Abbasi of Dawwod University and Dr Madad Li Shah of BBS University Khairpur.

The campus of Sindh University was established at Mirpurkhas in 2009 which was offering bachelor level and master programmes. At present, the campus is running nine programme of bachelors and maters with enrolment strength of 1000 students.

The chief minister said that Mirpurkhas division has no full-fledged university therefore the Camps may be upgraded to the level of university.

He added that Mirpurkhas division has three districts, Mirpurkhas itself, Tharparkar and Umerkot with a population of 4.5 million. Therefore, such a huge population should have a university, he said.

The matter was supported by provincial minister Hari Ram who is MPA from Mirpurkhas and all the cabinet members supported the proposal.

The University & Board presented draft bill of University of Mirpurkhas Act 2020 which cabinet approved after thorough discussion. The cabinet directed law department to vet the draft law and present in the assembly.

The Sindh Cabinet after thorough discussion approved the jurisdiction of Shaikh Ayaz University, Shikarpur.

Under the jurisdiction all the degree colleges of Larkana division would be affiliated with Shaikh Ayaz University.

The degree colleges/law colleges of the Larkana division are presently affiliated with Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur which falls in Sukkur Division.

Now, the public and private degree colleges/institutions/law colleges affiliation with Shah Abdul latif University would switch over to Shaikh Ayaz University, Shikarpur. The cabinet approved the proposal.

The Sindh Culture department presented the item of giving remuneration/fee to the members of The Sindh Board of Films Censors for Censorship of Films.

The cabinet approved different rate for different 12 categories, including feature film, feature produced abroad, feature film imported from abroad, feature film certification for cable TV, renewal of certification for additional period for imported and feature film on video cassette/DVD and others. There are different rates.

The Sindh cabinet approved denotification of two additional advocate generals and four assistant advocate generals.

The cabinet also exempted Dawat-e-Hadiya from Stamp Duty, registration fee and town tax on properties gifted to them.