ABBOTTABAD, Jan 19: The birth registration campaign is gaining momentum in Abbottabad district as people throng the union council offices to get their newborns registered.

This was observed during a meeting presided over by tehsil municipal officer Hafizur Rehman here on Sunday to review the birth registration situation in the district.

the chief guest at the meeting was deputy director of National Commission for Child Welfare Sajjad Ahmad. The meeting was also attended by the secretaries of 46 union councils of the district.

The NWFP government in cooperation with the Plan Pakistan, an NGO, has initiated a pilot project on birth registration in four districts of province.

Significant increase had been noted in the registration of newborns, which indicated that people of the rural areas took more interest in registering their babies as compared to urban areas.

Birth registration officers Safdar Raza and Jamshed Ali Chishti briefed participants about the salient features of the project, while Muhammad Shafeeq, district planning officer, and Khalid Naeem, child rights advisor of Plan Pakistan, highlighted the role of local governments, especially the union councils.