Dengue prevention: Cases lodged against five mill owners

24 notices issued against violators of health rules.

LAHORE:

The Environment Protection Department (EPD) on Thursday inspected 332 buildings in the city.

Five FIRs were registered against owners of buildings where dengue larvae were found. The EPD also issued 24 notices to owners of buildings where dengue prevention standard operating procedures were not being followed.

Environment Secretary Muhammad Anwar Rasheed, MPAs Khawaja Imran Nazir and Chaudhary Shahbaz Ahmed led the inspection at Pak-Paper Mill and Lahore Fabric Cotton Mill at Katcha Jail Road where dengue larvae were detected.

Secretary Anwar Rasheed directed the EPD to register FIRs against the mill owners. He also summoned the Gulberg Town administration officials.

Three other FIRs were registered against owners of Sardar Tyre Enterprises, Ghos-i-Azam Tyre Centre and M-Y Steel Godown in Badami Bagh.

So far, the EPD has inspected 66,755 places in 36 districts of the province and issued 18,249 notices, sealed 1,870 buildings and lodged 464 FIRs against owners of various tyre shops, warehouses, scrap yards and construction sites owners for violating dengue epidemic control rules.

In the last eight months, the EPD squads have inspected 12,422 places in the nine towns and checked 4,674 tyre shops, 5,353 scrap yards, 1,188 nurseries and 1,107 construction sites.

As many as 1,613 notices have been issued and 274 FIRs have been lodged.

In a statement, Rasheed said he had been personally potential monitoring dengue breeding sites. He said the EPD teams were using latest technological tools to monitor the sites. He said the anti-dengue squads would continue to inspect various sites until dengue was completed eliminated.

He said the EPD would also hold seminars to raise awareness about the epidemic.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2013.