BAHAWALPUR: The Bahawalpur bench of Lahore High Court has granted permission to allot Cholistan land to local applicants.

The bench directed officials of the Cholistan Development Authority (CDA), Bahawalpur, to submit details of the allotment schedule during the next hearing of the case.

According to petitioners hailing from the desert, the process of the allotment of land in Cholistan had been delayed since 2014 when the former Punjab chief minister Mian Shehbaz, under the Cholistan package, announced to allot them land in the desert.

They maintained that due to complicated procedure, the land in question could not be allotted to them.

A CDA official submitted in the court the scrutiny process of thousands of applications was going on. No date for next hearing was fixed.

SURRENDER: Commissioner Dr Ehteham Anwar Mahar has held Municipal Corporation chief officer Muhammad Asif responsible for the death of a boy due to an uncovered manhole and has surrendered his services to the Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD).

Being the administrator of the MC, the commissioner has asked the provincial secretary of LG& CD to appoint a suitable person as the chief officer here.

profiteers held: The district administration claims to have arrested 13 shopkeepers for alleged profiteering within two days in the district.

According to Deputy Commissioner Zaheer Anwar Jappa who chaired a meeting of price magistrates here on Thursday, a total of Rs199,000 fine was recovered from profiteers during two days.

FOOD POISONING: Five family members suffered from food poisoning at their house near Adda Permit Basti Jhokewala in Lodhran on Thursday.

According to Rescue 1122, the rescuers found five members vomiting as they had taken soda milk on Wednesday night. They were rendered first aid after which the condition of Shehzad (30) and Sania ((14) improved while Salman (15), Sonia (25) and Somna (23) were shifted to the Lodhran DHQ hospital in a critical condition.

ACCIDENT: A woman was killed while two others suffered serious injuries in a road accident near Shehbaz Chowk, Channigoth, about 70kms from here on Thursday.

According to Rescue 1122, Saleh Bibi was killed while her son Hanzla (12) and husband Zulfiqar were seriously injured when their motorcycle collided with another bike. In the meantime, a trailer hit their two-wheeler.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2023