MANSEHRA: The district administration has established another isolation ward for dengue cases at the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital.

“Another 50-bed ward has been added to the Kath to effectively deal with the influx of dengue patients,” deputy commissioner Dr Qasim Ali Khan told reporters here on Friday.

The DC said the cases of dengue fever were reported across the district, so isolation wards were established in tehsil and rural health facilities for the effective management of the issue.

“We have been carrying out the fumigation spray to quell the mosquito-borne larva to bring the cases ratio further down,” he said.

Dr Qasim said though experts claimed that the current winter rains would lead to the elimination of dengue, the district administration was making all possible efforts to contain the spread of the fever.

He urged the people to take precautionary measures against dengue.

OUTLAWS HELD: The police have arrested three men for illegally occupying a house and threatening its owner.

District police officer Sajjad Khan told reporters here on Friday that Mohammad Saleem, Mohammad Nasar and Naheed alias Mishi were held on the complaint of Ganda resident Mohammad Sadiq about the occupation of his house by them.

He said the police had begun a crackdown on the grabbing of land and property, which had seen an increase after the people hit by the 2005 earthquake in upper parts of Hazara division migrated to the district and purchased land.

Meanwhile, political activists and former local body representatives have demanded the blacktopping of the Oghi-Battle Road, complaining work on the Rs220 million project has been suspended for four months.

Addressing a joint news conference in Oghi area, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl district deputy general secretary Hafiz Moman Usmani said blacktopping of the road, which linked the tehsil with Karakoram Highway and Hazara Motorway in Battle area, was scheduled to be completed in the middle of the current year but the contractor finished only 20 per cent of it and left.

Accompanied by Pakistan Peoples Party district general secretary Anwar Saeed Khan and former councillor Mohammad Anwar, he said the residents wanted an early completion of the road project and if that didn’t happen, they would agitate.

Mr Anwar Saeed warned that the people would take up the matter with the National Accountability Bureau.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2021