May 30, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 17,1423

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LAKKI MARWAT, May 29: Tuberculosis is spreading very rapidly in the southern parts of NWFP, but no concrete steps have been taken by the authorities concerned to control it, despite the fact that TB control centres have been set up in upper and central districts of the province where it has broken out.

This was disclosed by a senior medical officer of Lakki Marwat here on Wednesday.

According to him, a meeting of the TB Control Programme authorities with Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah in the chair, it was decided to establish the TB control programme centres at various districts in the NWFP to cure the deadly and stop its further spreading.

According to sources, it is much distressing that there are more than 25,000 TB patients in Lakki Marwat, Bannu and the Frontier regions of both districts where no centre has been established so far.

It is feared that if the disease is not controlled in its preliminary stage, it will hit thousands of people. Another unfortunate fact is that the disease is spreading in the backward areas due to scarcity of health facilities.

When the authorities of TB Control Programme in Peshawar were contacted, they said they had told the executive district officers to establish the TB control programme centres at Bannu and Lakki Marwat, but no action had been taken on so far.

It has been learnt that new cases of the TB is much difficult to be controlled by the old ways of treatment as the present TB cases contain much stronger resistance.

Public circles have demanded of provincial government and TB Control Programme authorities to establish a control station at Serai Naurang, which is situated half-way between the two districts and is  also convenient to approach from the Frontier regions of Bannu and Lakki Marwat.

ZAKAT FOR STUDENTS: District Chairman of Zakat, Gul Nawaz Khan Syed Khel, has said that district zakat office has

allocated some fund for students, both male and female of Lakki Marwat and studying in different universities of the NWFP.

All deserving students have been advised that they should obtain zakat forms from their respective universities and send them back to Lakki Marwat zakat office till May 31, a press release said here on Wednesday.