Dengue victims’ heirs compensated

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak gave away compensation cheques to the legal heirs of 35 persons who died of dengue.

The ceremony was arranged at the Chief Minister’s House here on Thursday, said an official handout.

Senior Minister for Health Shahram Khan Tarakai, Peshawar District Nazim Muhammad Asim and officials of the district administration were also present at the ceremony.

It may be mentioned here that Rs 500,000 compensation was announced for heir of each victim. A total of 65 persons had died of the mosquito-borne disease.

Payment of the compensation to heirs of the remaining 30 deceased is also in process.

The chief minister on this occasion said eradication of all kinds of epidemics and free treatment of the chronic diseases as well as providing quality healthcare facilities to the poor was a priority of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government.

He said emergency steps of different nature were taken in wake of the recent outbreak of dengue in Peshawar.

Pervez Khattak said long-term measures were also being taken to completely eliminate the dengue, congo and other viruses and diseases from the province.

The chief minister said the present provincial government believed in actions rather than lip service. He said other provincial governments took comparatively long time to control dengue virus in their provinces than Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said compensation amount was being given to the heirs of dengue victims for the first time in history of the province.

Pervez Khattak said a comprehensive plan was being launched right from 2017 to March 2018 for uprooting the dengue virus from the province.

The chief minister expressed the confidence that the provincial government would soon emerge successful to wipe out dengue larva from Peshawar.

The Punjab government took three years to overcome dengue but the KP government fully controlled dengue within the same summer season in Swat last, he added.

The chief minister appealed to the people to support the provincial government move to adopt precautionary measures to protect themselves from dengue and check its nurture in surroundings.