93% of dengue kits remain in storage

Rs163.5m released for 500,000 kits, but no one gave them to citizens.

LAHORE:

The provincial government spent hundreds of millions of rupees recently to purchase and prepare 500,000 ‘anti-dengue kits’ and distribute them among the residents of Lahore. More than a week past the October 25 deadline set by the chief minister for the distribution of the kits, 465,000 lie in storage, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The kits each containing a packet of mosquito repellent coils, lotion, a chemical insecticide spray sachet, literature on dengue, 20 tablets of Paracetamol and a message from Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif   were bought for around Rs265 each by the Agriculture Department. The Finance Department, with the chief minister’s approval, released Rs163.5 million for the campaign.

On September 25, the chief minister inaugurated a campaign for the distribution of the packets, handing out 200 to families at a ceremony. He said the campaign would be completed in a month.

However, most of the kits are instead lying in storage at a public school on the Lower Mall and at the offices of town municipal administrators (TMAs), said an official. He said that the Agriculture Department had provided 350,000 kits by October 11 and the rest by October 25. He blamed the Lahore district coordination officer and commissioner for failing to distribute the packets, saying only 35,000 had been handed out so far.

“This is serious negligence on the part of the city government. There was a huge investment in these kits and it has been wasted,” he said.

But a city government official said the problem was a lack of clear decision-making by higher-ups.

He said that it was initially decided that PML-Nawaz parliamentarians would supervise the distribution of the kits, but later the responsibility was given to TMAs. The legislators opposed distribution by officials so it was decided that office bearers of the zakat committees would hand them out, he said. “The parliamentarians opposed this too,” he said.

At least 270 people have died and over 10,000 been infected by dengue in Lahore in the last few months, though the rate of deaths and infections has dropped along with the temperature. The dengue mosquito is expected to become active again after the winter.

An official said that the remaining kits would be handed out in February before the next dengue outbreak. “Luckily the items in the kits are not due to expire for two years,” he said.

Tariq Zaman, the personal staff officer to the DCO, said the kits were being distributed but did not say how many were still to be handed out. He blamed the TMAs for not distributing the kits efficiently.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2011.