CHITRAL: Activists of different political parties and civil society organisations in a meeting held in Upper Chitral have expressed dismay over non-serious attitude of the district administration towards the spread of coronavirus in the area and urged the chief minister to take notice of the situation.

The meeting, chaired by MPA Maulana Hedayatur Rahman, was attended by Maulana Fatehul Bari, Maulvi Javed Hussain, Hameed Jalal and others. They alleged that the district administration had been ignoring the standard operating procedures (SOPs) as approved by the provincial government for checking spread of coronavirus.

They claimed that passengers coming from other parts of the country were being allowed to go to their native areas after entering their names at the quarantine centres though they should be kept in quarantine for 14 days. They said such persons had been the main reason for spread of the virus.

The activists said a couple of days ago one resident each of Terich and Charun villages were registered in the quarantine centres of Booni, but they were present in their respective villages.

They said both tested positive when the villagers complained about their presence in the native towns.

The meeting also expressed its dissatisfaction over the hygiene conditions at the quarantine centres in Booni. They demanded of the authorities that more quarantine centres should be established at the village council level to facilitate suspected patients.

RATION DISTRIBUTED: A Chitrali couple based in America distributed ration among the poor families of Garam Chashma.

Roziman Shah and Nighat Akbar Shah came to their native valley after knowing about the hardships the locals were facing in the wake of the lockdown.

Rafique Ahmed, a former councilor from Garam Chashma, told Dawn that the relief goods consisting of rice, flour, sugar, pulses and anti- bacterial soap were given to 400 families of various villages. He said heads of majority of the families were daily wagers, but the continuous lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 threat had rendered them jobless.

Mr Ahmed said goods were dropped at the doorsteps of the families keeping in mind the social distancing.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2020