LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif has imposed a seven-day deadline to enhance staffing and machinery under the Suthra Punjab initiative and has instructed officials to eliminate underperforming private contractors while initiating self-operated services within a week. According to Directorate General Public Relation – Govt of Punjab, during a special meeting addressing the province’s sanitation strategies, the chief minister called for a detailed micro-plan to improve cleanliness throughout Punjab and requested a progress report on the initiative by next week.

The meeting evaluated the performance of sanitation companies, waste management systems, workforce availability, and field monitoring arrangements. The chief minister instructed the implementation of the Suthra Punjab beat system across the province within seven days. Sanitation companies delivering less than 80 percent performance in any tehsil are to receive warnings, while those scoring below 50 percent will face removal.

Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz further ordered the dismissal of non-performing private companies and the initiation of self-operated sanitation services within a week. Emphasizing the rights of sanitation workers, she instructed officials to ensure payment of outstanding dues and agreed on the recovery of arrears from defaulting companies. She stressed that workers should not be penalized for contractors’ unpaid liabilities and advocated for a legal mechanism to secure timely salary payments.

The chief minister also directed authorities to maintain cleanliness in rural areas at least on alternate days and to remove accumulated waste from villages. Weekly, detailed reports on human resources, beat-level machinery, and field monitoring officers in every tehsil were requested to evaluate operational performance.

The meeting was informed that assistant commissioners and relevant Suthra Punjab officials in each tehsil would be held accountable for failures in sanitation services. Anti-littering squads are operational in every division of the province, conducting 264,000 visits during which warnings were issued, and awareness was raised about sanitation standard operating procedure violations.

The chief minister reviewed cleanliness reports from various tehsils and praised Chakwal Deputy Commissioner Sarah Hayat and her team for their district’s performance. Additionally, the meeting considered a proposal to introduce a dedicated mobile application for Suthra Punjab workers.