attock                   -                 Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfi Bokhari has expressed his satisfaction over the arrangements made by the Attock district government to handle coronavirus. Despite of having financial constraints district government has done a very good and tremendous job.

He said this while chairing a meeting to review the arrangements made to handle Coronavirus emergency. On the occasion, DC Attock Ali Anan Qamar, DPO Khalid Hamdani, CEO Health Dr Sohail Ejaz, Dr Asif Niazi, Deputy Director Public Relations Shahzad Niaz Khokhar and other officers were also present.

Bokhari said that this government under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan has mobilised maximum resources to help the people specially those living below poverty line. He said this is high time for everyone to play his/her role and speciallyurged uponphilanthropists to come forward and help the poor segments of this society.

He urged upon the people to remain restricted to their houses, maintain social distance and to follow the instructions given by the government to ensure lockdown for controlling Coronavirus. Earlier, Deputy Commissioner Ali Anan Qamar in his briefing apprised the SAPM about the arrangements made in context with Coronavirus emergency. DC apprised the SAPM that across the Attock district, 111 medical officers, 117 women medical officers, 50 specialists and other paramedics were performing duties round the clock to handle any emergency in connection  with Corona and said that in different areas of the district, 14 quarantine centers have been established having capacity of 1073 beds.

The DC said that edibles are available across the district and groceries and other shops remain open from 9 am to 5 pm while medical stores are exempted from this. He said there is complete lockdown across the Attock district and mostly people are cooperating.

Qamar said that total 21 Coronavirus suspected patients were admitted and out of these patients 20 have been declared negative. DPO Attock Khalid Hamdani while briefing the SAPM said that all measures have been taken to ensure implementation of section 144 and lockdown.

Locusts attack crops

Locusts attacked crops in various parts of tehsil Jand in Attock district on Wednesday and Thursday after agriculture department issued alert to farmers besides taking different steps to avert the attack and minimise the damages. 

According to officials of agriculture department, after leaving their trail of destruction in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, swarms of locusts have now attacked hundreds of acres wheat crop in Jand tehsil.

District Focalperson Zafar Iqbal Khan told this scribe that locusts entered Jand tehsil of Attock from Shadi Pur area of district Kohat after playing havoc with fields in Kohat and DI Khan areas. He said that on Wednesday and Thursday, the crop eating insects entered Dandi Jaswal, Sagri, Pind Saral and other areas of the district. He said that after the locusts attack, farmers started adopting safety measures while district administration issued high alert.

Deputy Director Agriculture Shakeel Ahmed when contacted confirmed that locusts had entered in the district and said teams were busy in spraying pesticides in the affected areas. He said that the villagers were employing different traditional methods like making noise and beating drums to contain the damage. He said “as the agri department was well informed and prepared for the threat we have already alerted villagers who mounted loud speakers on their tractors to add to the noise.” He stated that farmers of the affected areas are being informed about precautionary measures to ward off the locusts and surveillance teams are busy in handling the situation. “The agriculture department’s teams have been given the mandate to start spraying in fields to get rid of locusts,” Ahmed said.

He added that all resources will be utilised to thwart the threat of locusts attack on crops.

Tahir Mehmood of the agriculture department told this reporter from the field over phone that district agriculture department has advised farmers to adopt precautionary measures to protect their crops from the locusts attack. He said during rain the locusts come on the ground and that was the time to eliminate them through spray. He said in case of rain, locusts could remain alive for 20 days without eating anything. Responding a question, he said that locusts stay on trees during night-time and attacks crops after sunrise.