KOHAT: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety and Halal Food Authority deputy director Kamran Khan said here on Sunday that a high percentage of food handlers in Kohat were suffering from contagious diseases, including skin disorders, allergies and hepatitis.

Talking to media persons, he said in around 121 food outlets of several hundreds who applied for the food authority’s licence, many food handlers tested positive for hepatitis. He said that the disease-affected workers were not allowed to work in food outlets unless they were properly treated.

Responding to a query, the official said that the license would replace the earlier permits of food, health, tourism and other departments.

“Presently, medical tests of only the workers who are in direct contact with food or sells loose food are mandatory. We suspect the ratio might be higher among the groceries shop owners for whom the food authority isn’t issuing licences presently,” Mr Khan remarked.

He said that high percentage of food handlers suffering from diseases was revealed from medical tests of food handlers.

REVENUE RECORD: Additional deputy commissioner, Kohat, Shah Nawaz during visits to various patwarkhanas (revenue circles) on Saturday found anomalies in the record and asked the patwaris to report to his office for investigation.

Accompanied by tehsildar Mir Zaman Marwat and regional information officer Irshad Afridi, Mr Nawaz visited six patwarkhanas in Mansoorkhel/Pirkhel, Miankhel, City, Garhi Mawaz Khan, Shahpur and Kalo Chinna. He checked the transfer record, daily tours, Girdawri and daily entries. He found some pending entries, but no mistakes except in the record of Mansoorkhel/Pirkhel revenue circle.

GREEN KOHAT: The civil society members here have launched Green and Clean Kohat organisation.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, chairman of the NGO Qasim Bokahri regretted that once Kohat used to be a lush green district, but due to ruthless cutting of trees it had become barren and wells had dried up creating acute shortage of water.

He said that during Eidul Azha they would distribute shopping bags among people for collecting the unused parts of sacrificial animals. He asked the people to put them at the corner of every street so that it could be collected by the sanitary staff easily. He said that they would start tree plantation campaign on mohallah level.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2018