‘Wear a mask’ drives to be launched in Sindh

Sindh Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah presided over a meeting on Thursday to review the COVID-19 situation in Sindh with regard to the implementation of the smart lockdown, anti-locust operation, and price-control and monsoon contingency plan in the province.

The meeting also discussed the problem of continued load-shedding across Sindh. Additional Home Chief Secretary Muhammad Usman Chachar, Health Secretary Kazim Jatoi, the secretaries of the rehabilitation, public health engineering and agriculture departments, divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners attended the meeting through video-link.

The commissioners briefed the meeting about the smart lockdown in their respective divisions and stated that several shops were sealed and fines were imposed by SHOs for violating the standard operating procedures.

They added that an amount of Rs6.1 million was collected in fines from traders selling commodities at exorbitant rates. The chief secretary directed all the deputy commissioners to launch ‘Wear a Mask’ drive in their respective districts to make the people follow the precaution of wearing the mask as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 spread.

Taking notice of public complaints regarding the increase in milk price in Karachi, Shah directed the Karachi commissioner to control the milk price by taking action jointly with the Sindh Food Authority.

In view of monsoon rains, the chief secretary directed the commissioners to devise contingency plans and increase the de-watering pumps to avert flooding in low-lying areas. He also directed officials of K-Electric, Hyderabad Electric Supply Company and Sukkur Electric Power Company to ensure uninterrupted power supply during the rain so that the rainwater could be quickly drained out.

The chief secretary sought a report from all the deputy commissioners regarding power load-shedding in their districts who informed the meeting that the prolonged load-shedding was the order of the day and all the towns and villages remained without electricity for several hours.

The public health engineering secretary informed the meeting that his department was inviting tenders for making the reverse osmosis plants operational. The agriculture secretary said a fumigation campaign was being carried out wherever locust swarms were reported. The chief secretary directed all the officers to launch tree plantation drive during the monsoon rains.