Anti-polio campaign kicks off

LAHORE : District Administration Lahore kicked off three-day polio drive in the provincial capital on Monday.

The district administration has set its target of administering polio eradication drops to 1.8 million children less than five years age for which it has fielded more than 5,000 teams in the provincial capital.

Earlier, DC Lahore Ms Saleha Saeed inaugurated the campaign by administering polio drops to children in Mian Munshi Hospital. However, she instructed all assistant commissioners to be in field and check the performance of polio teams. On the direction of DC Lahore, AC City visited UC 69 Shafiqabad and AC Model Town visited the Gulberg area where they administered polio drops to children and monitored teams working.

Moreover, DC Lahore Ms Saleha Saeed also chaired a meeting to review the progress of polio teams on the first day and reviewed the progress of each town separately. Meanwhile, on the direction of DC Lahore, district administration officers visited fruit and vegetable markets and monitored the auction process of fruit and vegetables on Monday afternoon.

AC Model Town visited Kacha Mandi and viewed auction of potatoes. He also imposed Rs5000 fine on the report of overcharging. Similarly, Additional Deputy Commissioner Lahore (General) visited Girls High School, Baba Ground and Chishti High School to identify the place for the erection of Ramazan Bazaar.

Ramazan bazaars: Special Ramazan bazaars would be established across the province from Shaban 25 where subsidised items would be available. In a meeting with Chairman Utility Stores Corporation Zulqarnain Ali Khan here on Monday, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Trade Mian Aslam Iqbal discussed the strategy of provision of relief to the masses in Ramazan bazaars and strategy to provide essential items at subsidised rates with the collaboration of utility stores under Ramazan Package-2019. The minister said strategy has been evolved to provide relief to people during the holy month of Ramazan. People will be provided essential items on subsidised rates in Ramazan bazaars which will start functioning from Shaban 25. He said a strict vigilant eye will be kept on quality, quantity and prices of the essential items.

No one will be allowed to snatch the right of the poor. Collaboration of the utility stores will also be available for the provision of relief to the consumers, he said and added all the line departments have been allocated duties. The chairman utility stores corporation said the corporation will cooperate with the Punjab government for the provision of essential items to the masses during Ramazan.

shelter homes: Punjab Minister for Social Welfare and Baitul-Maal Muhammad Ajmal Cheema has said Social Welfare Department has provided facilities to almost 23,000 people in five temporary shelter homes set up at five different points of Lahore.

These temporary shelter homes in tents had been established in association with the district government so that poor and destitute people from far-flung areas could take temporary refuge in them, he added. The minister was talking to the members of civil society and party workers who met him. Muhammad Ajmal Cheema said that the construction work of four out of five buildings of shelter homes has been completed while the remaining would be completed by the mid of next month.

He said development budget of the department had been raised from 550 million to 735 million rupees during this fiscal year. He said 176.95 million rupees had been allocated for new schemes. Almost 54.295 million rupees have been allocated for community welfare centres for transgenders, he said.

modern techniques: Head of Punjab Institute of Neuro Sciences Prof Dr Khalid Mahmud has called upon the doctors and nurses to reserve 10 per cent of their income for further studies so they can equip themselves with the challenges of 21st century and get modern techniques and knowledge. He expressed these views while speaking at a farewell party hosted at Punjab Institute of Neuro Sciences in honor of Professor of ENT Dr Mohammad Mujeeb who retired after completing his services at Services Institute of Medical Sciences.

On this occasion, Prof Dr Mohammad Mujeeb announced continuing his service and working for Endoscopic operations at Punjab Institute of Neuro Sciences along with Prof Dr Khalid Mahmud. He said so far more than 500 operations have been undertaken by both of them and he intended to continue this humanitarian service in the larger interest of common man.

Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood welcomed this decision and said that if all these cases have been done privately them for each operation there would have been expenditure of Rs 6 lac while here this exercise is done free of cost.