Official urges parents to vaccinate children against polio virus

LAKKI MARWAT: Deputy Commissioner Jehangir Azam Wazir on Thursday urged the parents to vaccinate their children against the poliovirus to ensure protection to the coming generations from the crippling disease.

"There are a total of 32 cases reported so far in Lakki Marwat district and 27 out of them had been detected in Serai Naurang tehsil," the official told a public forum held in Serai Naurang. “One of the reasons behind the rise in cases is the presence of poliovirus in the area and the parents refusals to vaccinate their children against the fatal virus,” he said.

He said that the government had been striving hard to vaccinate each and every child in the poliovirus-hit areas including Lakki Marwat and urged the parents to cooperate with the polio teams campaigning for the safety of their children health and future. The official also assured that the problems being faced by the people in education, health, electricity, cleanliness, food and others would be resolved on priority basis.

He said that the district administration had earmarked Rs180 million for the beautification of Serai Naurang Town, adding, the town would be developed with spending the fund on various uplift projects. Earlier, the local elders, Ishfaq Niazi, Mashal Khan, Abdul Waheed, Gohar Khan, Maulana Bashir Ahmed Haqqani and Maulana Ibrahim, while highlighting the problems, said that excessive loadshedding and heavy utility bills had made life of the people miserable. They said that their domestic life had also been paralysed by the hours-long loadshedding. About the education, Abdul Waheed said, “The government has set up education offices at tehsil levels to facilitate the district education authorities but the staff of the said offices are facing problems as there are no furniture and other requirements provided so far.”

Lauding the raid by the district administration against the Sarfaraz Flour Mills a day earlier, they said that the quality of the flour was substandard and unhygienic for the human consumption, adding, there was a need to keep a check on the activities of the mills owners and dealers tasked to provide people with quality flour at the official rate. They said that the deplorable condition of the cleanliness in the main market and adda was creating inconvenience to the residents while passing through it.