KOHAT: The residents of oil and gas-rich Rehmanabad area here have demanded establishment of a Covid-19 vaccination facility at the local basic health unit to rid them of the trouble of travelling 25 kilometres to the Shakardarra Civil Hospital for getting inoculated.

Talking to reporters on Sunday, former nazim Jan Badshah, Dr Khayal Ahmed, Mehmood Khan, Tariqul Hassan Mehdi, Mohammad Tariq and others said due to immense rush at the Shakardarra hospital people often had to return back without getting jabs.

The residents said they could not afford travelling long distances to get vaccinated at the Lachi tehsil and Kohat divisional hospitals. They said OGDCL had established makeshift vaccination camps, but still a huge population was to be vaccinated against the pandemic.

In a separate development, the office-bearers of the Kohat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) have demanded the government patronage for the investors wanting to establish units at the local industrial estate.

Founding president of KCCI Rasheed Paracha, president Asad Javed, former vice-president Azmat Jameel, executive body members Mr Shakir and Mr Jehangir claimed that all the industrial estates in the province had been made economic zones except the one in Kohat, according to a statement issued the other day.

The KCCI leaders said the industrial estate in Kohat had no proper roads, and also did not get subsidy on electricity. They demanded setting up of zonal offices of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zones Development and Management Company, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority, Small Industrial Development Board, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority.

They said the industrialists had to travel to Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and Peshawar to get NOCs, laboratory tests done and formulas approved at the cost of wastage of time and money.

DRUG ADDICTION: The social welfare department has said the two centres set up for rehabilitation of drug addicts are receiving the same patients three to five times, thus created severe accommodation problems.

Talking to Dawn on phone, social welfare officer Hussain Khattak said the centres, with one being run by an NGO, had the capacity of accommodating only 50 patients. He said both the centres were congested and could not take more drug addicts.

Mr Khattak said he had sent a report to the authorities concerned for establishment of another rehabilitation centre.

He said the government centre provided three month free treatment to patients, and that of the NGO-operated charged Rs15,000 per patient.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2021