RAWALPINDI: Taking notice of the increasing number of dengue patients in the three government-run hospitals, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the performance of the local administration and health department. The number of patients that have arrived in the hospitals has risen to 57.

The chief minister directed the Cabinet Committee on Anti-Dengue to visit Rawalpindi to review the situation and take immediate steps to curb this menace.

Following the directive, the chief minister’s adviser on health, Khawaja Salman Rafique, visited the garrison city on Wednesday and inspected work carried out by the departments to eliminate dengue virus. The adviser directed spraying of anti-dengue medicines in localities from where cases had been reported.

He said due to heavy monsoon rains, the dengue virus spread beyond expectation which was why high number of patients were reported in August instead of September.

He also directed the Rawalpindi Municipal Waste Company and Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) to ensure cleanliness in the city and check water leakages in supply lines.

Mr Rafique said on the directives of Punjab chief minister, the secretaries of different departments in Punjab would visit the garrison city in the coming days to monitor work of their respective subordinate departments.

“Why have cases been reported in August when dengue season has not even started,” he inquired.

He asked the government departments to coordinate with the ruling party MNAs, MPAs and members to achieve the 100 per cent results.

He also asked private hospitals to allocate beds so that proper standards were ensured. However, the provincial government failed to share data of dengue patients brought to private hospitals. At present, there is no official data available with the government with regard to private hospitals and clinics to ascertain the number of patients there.

It may be mentioned here that the health department failed to carry out proper fogging in areas especially near Leh Nullah after heavy rains. There seems to be no coordination between the town municipal administrations, environment and health departments. Those officials who got training from Thailand in 2011 on government expenditures were sidelined and inexperienced officials have been appointed to run the campaign.

Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Maroof Afzal said the CDA was working to avoid spread of dengue virus in the federal capital and it was ensuring cleanliness of the areas adjacent to Rawalpindi especially I.J. Principle Road.

Punjab Secretary Local Government Khalid Masood directed the town municipal administrations to immediately start work on cleaning graveyards and open plots and destroy abandoned tyres in junkyards.

He said special teams had been formed to monitor work of town municipal administrations and no negligence of the government officials would be tolerated.—A Reporter

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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