KARACHI, Dec 22: The chief secretary of Sindh has called upon all departments concerned and particularly the district coordination officers of the 23 districts to run a comprehensive campaign for treatment of hepatitis B and C patients within their respective jurisdictions.

He was chairing a high level meeting here on Monday.

Fazlur Rehman asked the district coordination officers to ensure that every hepatitis patient receive required medical treatment.

The chief secretary said that hepatitis B could only be controlled through vaccination, while complete treatment of hepatitis C could be done at the People’s Primary Health Care Institutions and other government facilities run by the health department.

The chief secretary also issued directives for the availability of fertiliser on controlled prices in areas where it was needed.

In the meeting the matter of granting agriculture land to landless peasants was also reviewed.

The chief secretary directed that farmers, who had been allotted land, should be provided bank passbooks without any cost at their doorstep so that they could carry out transactions with banks without any delay.

The meeting also reviewed special development projects and emphasised that in accordance with the chief minister’s instructions, proposals be chalked out immediately regarding the construction of three kilometres of road by a member of the Provincial Assembly and nine kilometres of road by a provincial minister.

The chief secretary issued strict instructions for rechecking of district accounts so that payment of fake salaries and fake bills could be checked under the rules and regulations.

He asked for a report within two days regarding the damage to wheat and other crops caused by the recent rains. He also ordered submitting details of loss of human lives, property and livestock within a week.

The DCOs were directed to carry out a survey of godowns of the food department under their jurisdictions and submit their functionality report.

Crackdown on profiteers, hoarders

The chief secretary also called upon the DCOs to expedite the ongoing campaign against profiteers and hoarders in their areas.

He ordered that 10 raiding teams of revenue officers carry out daily raids to check prices of essential commodities and penalise profiteers and hoarders with imprisonment and fine according to the rules and regulations and send him a report on a daily basis.

He said that the chief minister had already ordered action against hoarders under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance whereby the home secretary had been empowered to send hoarders and black marketeers behind bars for three months.

The meeting was also attended by the chairman of the Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority, Admiral (r) Riazuddin Shah. He informed the participants of the meeting about the ongoing projects of training of 19,000 people under the education, health and IT departments. He requested for timely payment of stipends to the trainees.

The chief secretary directed the DCOs that besides payment of stipends, the trainees should also be provided transport facilities.

The pace of work on the Clean Drinking Water For All project was also reviewed.

The DCOs were directed to ensure early provision of facilities of water supply and sewerage system along with electric connection and submit implementation report by next week.

The activation and upgrade of district websites and national programme for improvement of water courses was also reviewed.

The DCOs were asked to play their role in this respect and ensure solution to minor or major problems by promoting liaison between departments concerned.

Meanwhile, the chief secretary directed the DCO of Karachi, Javed Hanif Khan, to prepare a PC-1 of a water treatment plant for the Boating Basin, Nahr-i-Khayyam and coastal water for maintaining cleanliness at the Clifton beach.

The additional chief secretary of planning and development, the additional chief secretary of local government, Ghulam Ali Pasha, Nazar Hussain Maher, senior member of the Board of Revenue, secretaries of agriculture and general administration and other officers attended the meeting.—APP