Local govt steps up drive against illegal health centres

People asked to be more supportive in identifying unauthorised facilities

PESHAWAR: Stepping up its drive against illegal health facilities in Peshawar, maternity centres, in particular, the local government has asked the public to play a more supportive role in identifying them.

Officials claimed that dozens of unlawful facilities had been sealed and as many running them arrested over a few complaints.

“We have only nine officials dealing with over 3.5 million people in the district, still we managed to seal dozens of unauthorised centres,” said Peshawar’s Deputy Commissioner (DC) Saqib Raza Aslam while talking to The Express Tribune on Tuesday.

“They are playing with the lives of innocent citizens,” said Aslam. “We want citizens to come forward and help us nab them.”

The DC said a toll-free number would be advertised before Ramazan for people to lodge complaints in this regard.

Commenting on the issue, Assistant Commissioner Bashir Ahmad blamed people for saving those involved in the illegal practice. “People refuse to identify them [illegal health facilities] when our teams reach the site while acting on their complaints,” he said.

Ahmad seemed perturbed over what he called the non-serious attitude of people in pursuing their complaints.

“Apart from health centres, people even lie about milk rates,” Ahmad said. “They buy milk on higher than the official rate and claim to have bought it at the official rate.”

Without the help of the public, it would take longer than required to cleanse the city of the unauthorised health centres, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2017.