LAHORE, Oct 15: The Punjab government on Saturday expressed its willingness to look after destitute children from the earthquake-hit areas.

The children should be given full protection which was possible only in the Punjab which had recently formed a Child Protection Bureau and a related court, said Chief Secretary Salman Siddique while talking to reporters at his office here.

He said the bureau would adopt the children through the related court and it had the capacity to keep them safely at its Nigheban centres.

Those who wanted to adopt such children could get them from the bureau and that too after a legal procedure. Nowhere else in the country did exist such a legal framework and mechanism, he said.

He said the bureau would also look for the parents or the relatives of the children ensuring that they would not be exploited by anyone.

“Allowing private people to adopt such children is wrong as there are chances of their exploitation,” Mr Siddique said.

Earlier, he said the Punjab government expected to shortly receive around 800 patients from the affected areas. And to treat them and provide shelter to their accompanying relatives it had established a camp at Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital.

Though every hospital was ready to receive such patients, the camp was being established at the Jinnah Hospital because it had more space, he said.

The chief secretary said the attendants of the patients from outstations would be provided protection, free meals and, if required, medical assistance. They would be properly taken care of, he said.

When asked whether the government would provide security to people carrying relief goods to the affected areas, he said the best way to avoid looting of relief goods was that succour should be handed over to the DCOs concerned or relief centres set up in Rawalpindi.

“Why don’t people give their donations to government agencies for their onward transportation to the affected areas where a rush of people was hindering the relief operation?” he asked.

He said the provincial government was closely monitoring the relief measures being taken by its agencies and the private sector and trying its best to regulate the entire system.

The team of administrative officers it had sent to Muzaffarabad on Friday had started working. They would soon get staff support from the government, he said.