PESHAWAR: The district administration of Peshawar came up with a unique announcement of fixing Rs25 as 'head money' for killing rats in the provincial capital, it has been learnt.

A meeting was held on Tuesday in this regard, chaired by city mayor Muhammad Asim Khan, to discuss the matter with the district health officer Dr Jehangir Khan accompanied by public health coordinator Dr Muhammad Atif and officials of the Water and Sanitation Services.

The issue had surfaced when an infant was recently bitten to death by a rat in Hasan Ghari area of Peshawar’s suburbs.

The district administration decided to give Rs25 as prize money to residents of the city for killing each rat.

For this specific points have been reserved in all four towns across the city and the residents have been asked to dump the rats there and claim their bounty.

In addition to this, a mobile service has also been established to collect the rats killed by the citizens in the city’s suburbs.

The district administration has also directed the concerned authorities to distribute rat-killing poison among the residents.

A committee has been setup under the supervision of Naseer Ahmad, an expert on the matter, to maintain vigilance on the “anti-rats operation”.

“The operation would be run on daily basis to clean the city from rodents,” said Naseer Ahmad, head of the operation against rats.

This issue also came under discussion in the recent session of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly during a ‘notice of attention’ call by a member.

Provincial health minister Shahram Khan Tarakai questioned “whether the rats were sent to the province by someone”.

This was followed by interesting remarks made by lawmakers present in the assembly hall.