Minister inaugurates nutrition awareness drive

LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Health Dr Yasmin Rashid on Monday formally kicked off a province-wide “Nutrition and Breast Feeding Awareness” drive dubbed as the largest campaign cum survey in Pakistan.

The minister inaugurated the “Nutrition and Breast Feeding Awareness” drive at slum area in the suburban of provincial capital and fed dose of vitamins to kids. Under the Mother and Child Health and Nutrition Programme teams would reach more than 10 million children and one million pregnant women in door-to-door drive. “It is not simply an awareness drive but a chance to collect real data about malnutrition in Punjab,” said the minister.

She directed the staff concerned to work with missionary zeal to achieve the target of healthy Pakistan. “Till 06 October, health teams would collect details of under nutrition children and if a child found stunted he would immediately be referred to special doctor who would check him and free of cost multi minerals would be fed to the child” she further said.

The minister emphasised on breast feeding saying, “As a doctor let me clear that nothing is suitable for an infant than his or her mother’s own feeding. You should avoid feed even water till the age of 06 months,” she said.

Project Director Dr Syed Mukhtar Hussain Shah and DG Health Dr Munir Ahmed briefed the minister about features of “Nutrition Week”. “During the drive 2.8million children under the age of two would be fed vitamins and sachet of multi-minerals would also be provided to the minors, pregnant women would be provided iron and folic acid tablets free of cost,” said Dr Mukhtar.

The Minister expressed satisfaction over arrangements and directed the officials to implement the plan in letter and spirit. “World Health Assembly have endorsed global targets and committed to reduce stunting by 40 per cent in children under five between 2010 and 2025, so we must look forward to achieve the goals set by international community” the minister said.

LTC: Punjab Minister for Transport Muhammad Jahanzaib Khan Khichi visited head office of Lahore Transport Company (LTC) and held a meeting with the staff here on Monday.

Lahore Transport Company CEO Mariam Khawar, Chief Operating Officer Zafar Ahmed Qureshi, Deputy General Manager Enforcement Chaudhry Shafique Ahmed, Deputy General Manager Technical Abdul Qayyum and other officials attended the meeting.

Jahanzaib said the objective of his visit was to collect information about public transport system and to take measures for loopholes found in the system. He said besides bringing further improvement of transport in major cities of Punjab, steps would be taken to eliminate the desperations of people particularly in neglected areas of South Punjab. He said in order to facilitate people more routes would be operational and so far fares of public transport were not being increased.

The officials of LTC briefed the minister about various projects of public interest, hierarchical structure and progress of different departments of the organisation in detail.

people’s problems: Punjab Minister for Industries and Trade Mian Aslam Iqbal has said the government’s top most priority is to solve people’s problems and every possible effort will be made in this regard.

According to a handout issued here on Monday, the minister listened to people’s problems at an open court and issued orders for the solution of their problems. He said officers should keep the doors of their offices open for the masses and they should pay full attention to solve their problems. He said the government will leave no stone unturned in serving the masses.

The minister said wrong policies of former government increased people’s problems and the present government is taking every possible step to provide relief to the general public. “We have dedicated every moment of our life to public service. Merit is the only way to progress and we are implementing merit policy at every level. Wrong priorities of the former government created countless problems for people. The journey of change has started, the results of the change will be soon witnessed by people,” he said.