RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has formed the District Coordination Committee comprising all lawmakers from the district to look after development work.

MNA Qamarul Islam from NA-53 was nominated the convener of the committee while former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf from NA-53 and other MNAs and MPAs of the PML-N were members of the committee.

Though the first meeting of the District Coordination Committee was held with Raja Qamarul Islam in the chair, PPP MNA Raja Pervaiz Ashraf did not attend.

However, members of the national and provincial assemblies from the PML-N, including Malik Abrar, Daniyal Chaudhry, Bilal Yameen Satti, Raja Hanif Advocate, Ziaullah Shah, Naeem Ejaz, Malik Iftikhar, Imran Ilyas, Mohsin Khan, Malik Mansoor and Raja Sagheer, attended the meeting.

Members concerned over increasing cases of mobile phone snatching and motorcycle theft

Deputy Commissioner Dr Hassan Waqar Cheema, City Police Officer Syed Khalid Hamdani, Rawalpindi Medical University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Umer, RDA Director General Kinza Murtaza and other senior officials of the district administration and provincial department attended the meeting.

A senior official of the district administration told Dawn that it was the first meeting of the committee and various departments presented their reports about the development works.

Raja Hanif Advocate raised the issue of poor construction of roads carried out by the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) in the garrison city, saying that substandard material was used in the construction of Asghar Mall Road and other arteries. He said the recent rains had exposed the poor quality of work on the roads.

The senior official said the committee had been formed to inspect the road quality and present a report to the committee in the next meeting, adding that committee members would be notified in a day or two.

Briefing the meeting, the health officials said so far four dengue cases had surfaced in Rawalpindi this year.

The meeting was informed that there were 1,273 permanent officials associated with anti-dengue campaign while 1,500 had been recruited on daily wage. As many as 270 workers were dismissed due to their slackness in work and negligence during the campaign, the officials said.

Over 426,64o people were provided treatment in three major hospitals of Rawalpindi while 185,000 patients visited the outdoor patient departments of these hospitals in the last one year. After revamping of Holy Family Hospital, its OPD is now fully functional.

About the law and order situation, the committee expressed concerned over the increasing cases of mobile phone snatching and motorcycle theft and asked the police to form a mechanism for crime prevention.

The police were also asked to form reconciliation council committees at the police station level besides increasing the number of personnel in police stations so crackdowns could be launched against drug sellers and gangs.

The meeting was told that there were 58 dams in Rawalpindi region. Work on Chahan Dam has been completed and laying of supply lines will be completed by June.

About education, it was informed that there were 1807 government schools out of which primary schools were 1039, elementary 249, high 452 and higher secondary schools 67.

Large-scale action is being taken against electricity pilferers. Since 2023, FIRs have been registered against 194 people for electricity theft.

About illegal housing societies, RDA informed the meeting that it had issued legal notices to 560 societies, challans to 218 besides lodging FIRs against 221 others. Moreover, offices of 184 housing schemes were sealed and cases of 135 were sent to FIA cyber crime wing.

The district administration presented a brief on Nighaban Ramazan package along with recommendations for improvement in case of any similar future initiative while identifying the major problems and loopholes.

The RMC and the district administration updated the participants about the status of encroachments in their areas along with hindrances in elimination of them.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2024