RAWALPINDI: The local administration has started registering police cases against the residents in case a dengue larva is detected in their houses.

Earlier, cases were registered against owners of commercial outlets after finding dengue larvae on their premises.

Though the number of dengue cases registered in Rawalpindi is limited to 30, the local administration started harassing the residents in the name of a dengue campaign.

On Saturday, the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) registered eight FIRs against the local residents after finding dengue larvae in their houses.

Mohammad Faisal, a resident of 6th Road, said health workers entered his house and after checking told the family that they had found dengue larvae on the premises.

He said the residents adopted all possible precautionary measures to protect the lives of their families from the virus.

“It is the duty of the health department and the municipal corporation to carry out fumigation if dengue larva is found anywhere but they harass the citizens by sending their cases to the police,” he said.

When contacted, PTI district president Zahid Kazmi told Dawn: “The Punjab government is punishing the residents of Rawalpindi who did not welcome disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his arrival in Rawalpindi on way back to Lahore from Islamabad.”

He said the health department should spray anti-mosquito medicines and create public awareness about the precautionary measures to avoid the spread of dengue.

He said all the campaigns in the district and province were run to mint money instead of providing facilities to the citizens.

“Many people got infected with the dengue virus but hospitals and the provincial government did not register them claiming that no dengue patient had reported to government-run hospitals,” he said.

He said the PTI would raise the issue at the Punjab assembly and the National Assembly and seek an audit of all the expenditures on the anti-dengue campaigns from 2010 to 2017.

PPP city spokesman Nasir Mir told Dawn that the government should work to eliminate mosquitoes instead of registering cases against the citizens.

“The residents of Rawalpindi are already suffering from price hikes and the registration of police cases is an injustice with them and illogical too,” he said.

A senior official of the RMC said the directive to register cases against owners of houses where dengue larvae were detected was issued in 2012. However, he added, it was strange that the local government had started implementing the direction now.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2017