Easy access: G-B residents to get polio certificates in home districts

CM meets WAPDA chairman, asks federal govt to tap power generation opportunities.

GILGIT:

Gilgit-Baltistan’s (G-B) Ministry of Health and Population Welfare has authorised district health officers (DHO) and medical superintends (MS) to issue polio vaccination certificates from their respective districts to individuals wishing to travel abroad.

The decision has been taken in light of recommendations from the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization. The committee has made vaccination certificates compulsory for all travellers at international airports, informed a G-B health ministry official, Faqir Muhammad.

In a letter, the health ministry has asked DHOs and MSs based in Skardu, Diamer, Ghanche, Ghizer, Astore, Hunza-Nagar and Gilgit districts to issue the certificate on the standardised format developed by the National Health Services Regulations and Coordination, Islamabad. The decision is expected to provide the facility at the doorstep of G-B residents, who would otherwise have to travel to Islamabad to get the certificates.

Meanwhile, G-B Chief Minister Mehdi Shah asked the federal government to make arrangements to tap power generation opportunities, available in abundance in the region.

“If the federal government makes such plans, we are ready to fully support them,” Shah said while talking to Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chairman Zafar Mehmood, who called on him at the CM office. Vowing not to let the project become a victim of politics, Shah added that Diamer-Bhasha Dam will prove to be a catalyst in ending the power crisis of the country. The CM also asked Mehmood to settle the issues being faced by local residents of Diamer due to the proposed dam.

Addressing the power crisis in G-B, Shah said despite resource constraints, they have devised a plan to set up a grid to link all power houses.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2014.