LAHORE: The Secretary Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) Dr Ahmed Javed Qazi issued an implementation strategy to the all line departments to prevent and control the spread of dengue in the city, Pakistan Today learnt.
Through a letter issued on Sep 5, the letter directed all line departments to support the district administration in policy and implementation in managing the dengue outbreak.
The secretary directed line departments to coordinate the procurement of such machinery and insecticides as are required for operations and “to supervise the enrollment of work charge employees required for dengue operation”. The directive called for graveyards, abandoned and under-construction buildings to be cleaned so as to remove the danger of them spreading the disease.
The letter states, “All operational teams of LG&C department must be registered on PITB dashboard through android application in consultation with respective PITB representatives. Monitoring and evaluation of these activities shall be ensured by each chief officer, deputy director and assistant director, LG&CD department of the respective local government/district. Uploading of such monitoring activities on PITB dashboard, on a daily basis, shall also be mandatory.”
In regard to the roles of the LG&CD officials the letter says, “All the LG&CD officers are directed to develop effective liaison and functional integration with all line departments for ‘Dengue Prevention and Control’ and they shall also participate in DERC, ZERC and TERC meetings at the district, zonal and tehsil levels on regular basis to support district administration. Regular and community health awareness activities shall be undertaken through distribution of IEC material. Instructions issued by deputy commissioners with regard to ‘Dengue Prevention and Control’ shall be complied with while remaining within the role defined for LG&CD Department in Dengue related SOPs”.
The letter further states, “Director General, LG&CD shall be the focal person of the department to monitor and support Dengue related activities in the province to be performed by LG&CD officers and staff. He shall be assisted in the task by the deputy secretary (Implementation) LG&CD and Director (Data Collection), Punjab Local Government Board. The said office may call for regular reports from the field (wherever necessary) and shall also observe the activities of dashboard continually”.
It is pertinent to mention here that the outbreak of dengue has created an alarming situation in the city. New cases are being reported every day and the situation seems out of the control of authorities.
