KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has directed the provincial disaster management authority to distribute 50,000 blankets in Tharparkar before the onset of winter.

Besides, 1,100 hand-pumps should also be installed at the earliest in the drought-affected areas of Dadu, Jamshoro and Thatta districts for which Rs195 million had already been sanctioned.

The CM was presiding over a meeting to review the relief activities being carried out by the Sindh government in Tharparkar here on Friday at CM House.

He said that in view of extreme variation of temperatures in Tharparkar, winter could have a negative impact on the people.

He directed the official concerned to distribute at least 50,000 blankets, especially among pregnant women and children under five who had been identified in a survey conducted by the provincial health department.

He said that a third-party validation conducted by the Aga Khan University Hospital into the death of children revealed that premature deliveries, underweight babies, sepsis, infection of umbilical cord and pneumonia were the real causes of the deaths.

However, he alleged, the media was projecting baseless causes about the death of children in Thar.

Referring to the briefing given by Sindh Health Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar about a comparative mortality report, the chief minister said that the infant mortality ratio (IMR) of Tharparkar was considerably less than those of developed districts of Punjab. In Faisalabad, he argued, the ratio stood at 100 children a year which was twice as much the IMR of Tharparkar.

“Even the death ratio in the Sargodha district is much higher than Tharparkar but our political opponents have unleashed a propaganda campaign against the Sindh government,” the chief minister said.

The chief minister said that all required health facilities had been provided at the district hospital Mithi and all taluka hospitals of Tharparkar.

The effectiveness of the Mithi hospital could be assessed from its daily out-patient department record of over 1,400 patients.

He also said that 23 new vehicles and 550 motorcycles had been dispatched to Tharparkar on Thursday and Friday to mobilise the health officials so that they could provide medical facilities to the people of Thar at their doorsteps. Besides four more ambulances were also being sent to Tharparkar district, he added.

He also directed the health department to establish 50 birth stations with trained community midwives to avoid delivery complications. “I want you to extend the working hours of basic health units in the district to ensure prompt health facilities.”

Earlier, health minister Dahar told the meeting about health facilities in Tharparkar and said that all 70 doctors appointed recently were working there.

He said that his management was conducting a survey of pregnant women and children under five years of age to ensure their vaccination and nutrition supplement and so far out of 2,255 villages, 1,327 had been surveyed.

Food Secretary Saeed Awan informed the meeting that three phases of free distribution of wheat had been completed and so far more than 600,000 bags of wheat were distributed.

Published in Dawn, November 22th, 2014