Anti-dengue drive: Minister for complete eradication of epidemic

The minister said that a sanitation patrolling team should also be recruited and made part of the dengue drive

RAWALPINDI:

Provincial Minister for Labour and Human Resource Raja Ashfaq Sarwar has directed heads of different departments to carry out the anti-dengue drive by involving all human and capital resources to get rid of the epidemic.

While chairing a weekly dengue control review meeting at the Commissioner’s Office Rawalpindi here on Saturday, he said that strict action should be taken against the officials who remain absent from the dengue drive. The minister said that staff and workers should be trained in indoor and outdoor surveillance and the performance of the field staff should be monitored. He said that a sanitation patrolling team should also be recruited and made part of the dengue drive.

“Broken equipment should be fixed immediately and availability of medicines and chemicals should be made available so that the drive can be carried out without hindrance,” he said.

Rawalpindi Acting Commissioner Sajid Zafar Dal, MPA Raja Hanif Advocate, heads of different departments and other officials attended the meeting.

Sarwar said that all departments should evolve an anti-dengue plan and coordinate with each other to eradicate the epidemic completely. He said that the performance of dengue control teams and surveillance staff should be monitored and anti-dengue activities should be reviewed daily through supervisory staff.

The minister said that void spaces in residential areas, trade centers, under construction buildings, junkyards, graveyards and parks should be filled so that the water could not accumulate. Sajid Dal told the meeting that guiding principles have been evolved keeping in view the previous results of the campaign and instructions were being issued to control dengue in Rawalpindi.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2015.