Workers at graveyards designated for COVID-19 victims get safety gear

Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar has announced that the workers at the five graveyards designated for the burial of COVID-19 victims have been provided with face masks and other protective gear.

He said the gravediggers will carry out their responsibilities while taking all the required precautionary measures. He directed all the workers to put on their safety gear while burying the people killed by the coronavirus.

The mayor said funerals and burials will continue to be carried out at all graveyards, but only limited people will be allowed to attend the funeral of a person who dies because of COVID-19.

He asked the people to cooperate with the graveyard administrations, stressing that all these measures are being taken for their own good. He also asked political parties to work with the people of the city in the current circumstances.

Ration distribution

Akhtar asked the philanthropists and different non-governmental organisations engaged in providing rations to the public to not do so on the roads by parking their vehicles. He asked them to carry out their philanthropic work in a systematic manner so that the rations reach the underprivileged.

He reviewed the ration distribution work of the All City Tajir Ittehad. Senior Director Coordination Masood Alam, the Ittehad’s chief Khawaja Jamal Sethi, President Hakeem Shah, the Green Timber Market’s Tahir Sarbazi, Hyderi Market President Faraz Ahmed, the Lea Market’s Shoaib Baloch, Jeweller Market Kharadar President Muhammad Shakir, the Karachi Youth Association’s Farooq Qaimkhani and other trader leaders were also present on the occasion.

The mayor said the business community always steps up whenever the country is facing a crisis because the government alone cannot overcome any such situation. “Traders, industrialists and investors should help the needy people in this difficult time.”

He asked welfare organisations to note down the computerised national identity card numbers of the people who get rations from them for the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) so that no one gets rations twice in a short span of time. “Through this process we’ll be able to provide essential commodities to more families,” he said.

“Through some reports it has been established that a mafia is collecting most of the rations and selling them in the market,” he told them. He also said that now the KMC is collecting data at union committee-level and will distribute rations based on those details.

Akhtar said the local bodies’ representatives should be tasked with ration distribution because they are well aware of the needy people in their respective areas. He added that the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation is going to distribute rations from next week. He said the KMC will ensure that the rations are provided only to the needy people. He asked the philanthropists to cooperate in this regard.