Rawalpindi : The residents and traders have protested against registration of FIRs during anti-dengue drive and demanded of the higher authorities to use quality spray against dengue larva, rather to harass citizens through registration of cases here.
The traders and citizens have announced to lockdown whole city after 10th of Muharram if local administration did not stop registration of cases against public in the name of anti-dengue campaign.
In fact, local administration was completely failed to spray and fumigate in all areas and pouring down its irresponsibility over citizens and registering FIRs to show performance before Punjab government.
All Pakistan Traders Association (Punjab) President Sharjeel Mir told ‘The News’ that district administration only doing paper work rather to do to spray or fumigation in the areas. The district administration was only doing baseless meetings and registering FIRs on dengue otherwise nothing. We have decided to lockdown the city against this harassment in the name of anti-dengue campaign, he warned. He has also warned that if local administration did not take back FIRs against public and business community, we will stage protest demonstration in front of Parliament House after 10th of Muharram.
The local administration and health department during anti-dengue campaign found a large-scale dengue larva from various areas. The authorities claimed to have registered 698 cases against the citizens in the last three days. They said that 853 traders were fined after detection of dengue larva in commercial areas and 285 buildings were sealed.
According to the data obtained from the district administration, a fine of Rs1,948,500 was imposed for violations of dengue SOPs in the last three days. Dengue teams also issued 4,014 notices to owners of both residential and commercial buildings after detecting active dengue spots.
The traders and common citizens have demanded immediate withdrawal of the cases registered against them, holding the district administration responsible for the dengue spread and negligence.
The traders urged the Punjab government to take notice of the alleged aggressive attitude of the district administration. Traders expressed that they had to face the same issue during Covid-19 and resultantly and their businesses were devastated. Some days ago, District Coordination Epidemics Prevention and Control (DCEPC) Dr Sajjad Mehmood while giving details of the punitive actions informed that the district administration had registered 591 FIRs, sealed 233 premises and issued challans to 746 on violations of SOPs in various areas.