The Punjab government has cancelled the contracts of sanitation companies in several tehsils across four divisions over poor performance under the Suthra Punjab Programme, 24NewsHD TV reported on Saturday.
According to sources, contracts in tehsils of Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan divisions have been cancelled over reports of negligence. The decision was taken over poor sanitation arrangements and the failure to pay workers’ salaries on time.
Sources said the cancelled contracts would not be awarded to any other firms. Instead, the Suthra Punjab Authority will directly take over sanitation operations in the affected areas.
Earlier, the authority had also cancelled contracts in 29 tehsils over unsatisfactory performance. Agreements with a single firm operating in 21 tehsils were also terminated due to poor performance, according to the report.
The action follows a review of the cleanliness programme chaired by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif earlier this month, in which she set a 15-day deadline for a complete improvement in cleanliness across the province. The meeting decided in principle to end the services of solid waste management companies over unsatisfactory cleanliness arrangements and to run the service through self-operation in major cities, including Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan.
The chief minister also directed the district administrations to ensure visible results through sanitation operations, and ordered the introduction of key performance indicators to assess officers responsible for cleanliness in their areas.
The Suthra Punjab Programme was launched in December 2024 and is described as the province’s largest cleaning programme. It is run largely through private contractors, and has faced complaints from residents about dirty streets, as well as protests by workers over delayed payment of salaries in several cities.
In October, the chief minister had given sanitation companies and private contractors seven days to improve their performance, ordering that contractors scoring below 50 per cent in any tehsil be removed and replaced by services run directly by local administrations, while companies scoring below 80 per cent would receive warnings.
The provincial government says the latest cancellations are part of the same enforcement drive, and that sanitation operations in the affected tehsils will now be handled directly by the Suthra Punjab Authority.
