Chinese restaurant owner booked over dengue larvae

LAHORE
Punjab Environment Protection Department (EPD) Secretary Dr Iqbal Muhammad Chuhan along with Punjab Environment Minister Shuja Khanzada inspected a Chinese restaurant in Gulberg and lodged a case against its owner and management after dengue larvae were found on the restaurant premises.
Secretary Iqbal along with anti-dengue squad inspected Yum Restaurant where dengue larvae were present on various places in abandon stuff placed at the backyard of the restaurant. He issued directives to clear the premises and lodged a case again owner Asif Rafique and two others.
So far, Environment Protection Department, Punjab inspected 23,243 places in all nine towns of the provincial metropolis and issued 416 notices, and lodged 35 FIRs against tyre shops, warehouses, scrap-yards and under-construction sites’ owners for not adopting dengue control measures during the past seven months.
On the directives of Secretary Dr Iqbal, special anti-dengue squads of EPD inspected 23,243 places in Lahore and 53,626 places in other districts of Punjab.
The Punjab government assigned the task to Environment Protection Department Dengue Directorate to identify and eliminate the dengue breeding sites in tyres shops, junkyards, nurseries and under construction sites of Punjab districts during dengue season.
The secretary had constituted nine special anti-dengue squads under the supervision EDH Tauqueer Qureshi in Lahore while 42 squads in other districts of Punjab.
During the past seven months, the squads inspected 23,243 places in all nine towns of the city and checked 14,851 tyre shops, 6,651 scrap-yards, 1,054 nurseries, and 687 under construction sites and 416 notices have been issued while 35 FIRs have been lodged. The anti-dengue squads found 7,556 places satisfactory where SOPs regarding dengue were followed while the squads removed 1,906 breeding points in Lahore.
Director Environmental Health Dengue Control (EDHC) Naseem Shah said he himself had been inspecting the dengue breeding points in the city and monitoring the entire dengue inspection through Punjab Government Dengue Online Android System.
Secretary Dr Iqbal Muhammad Chuhan said the government was utilising all resources to fight dengue. He said EPD has recommended various strategies to Punjab government to resolve the pile tyre issues. He said he himself visited a number of tyre shredding units and asked the district government to adopt this option of tyre shredding as the district administration had no covered area or godown to keep the confiscated tyres.
Tevta courses: Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) has offered 50 demand-driven short courses in its 2nd phase and under the programme 36,120 youths are being imparted skilled training at 285 selected Tevta institutes in Punjab.
Tevta Chairperson Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said this while addressing a meeting on Monday. Vice-president of a communication firm, Faisal Ejaz Khan, Rai Fakhar, Yasir Sharif Khan, Waqas Javaid, Tevta officers Hamid Ghani Anjum, Abdul Qayyum, Azhar Iqbal Shad, Akhter Abbass Bharwana, Sarfraz Anwar and others were present.
The meeting was informed that these short-courses had been started on the demands of relevant national and international industry.
Irfan Qaiser Shaikh said 36 new short-courses out of 50 were introduced in 2nd phase of short-courses, adding Tevta was signing MoUs with different national and international organisations to train skilled manpower. The aim is to provide skills to unemployed youth in employable trades to provide them with job opportunities at local and international level.
Faisal Ejaz Khan appreciated the efforts by Tevta to provide demand driven courses to youths and briefed about the modalities to facilitate the students of Tevta to get their stipends and other telecommunication packages on comparative rates.