BAHAWALPUR - Commissioner Bahawal­pur Division Asif Iqbal Chaudhry here on Thurs­day said Cholistan and other areas of Bahawalpur division have been cleared from locusts and no traces of locust or its eggs were found in a recent survey.

Talking to APP, he said that surveillance of locust would continue during Eid holidays since locust was still breeding in areas of Punjab, Sindh, Balo­chistan, and India.

“Various operations were conducted in the division and 1182 acres of land was sprayed with Malathion and Lambda Cyhalothrin with the help of the latest 600 spraying machines and helicopter of Pakistan Army”, he added.

Asif said an area of 95000 acres was sprayed during the previous opera­tion against locust, add­ing, that locust entered Bahawalpur from Jalalpur Pirwala in Uch Sharif area on May 15 and then moved towards Rahim Yar Khan and Cholistan areas.

“An intense operation during the last 5 days helped in eradicating the insect from the Cholistan and other areas of the divi­sion”, he told.

Talking about COVID-19 situation in Bahawalpur, Commissioner Asif Iqbal said that 366 positive cas­es were found in the divi­sion, of which 244 have recovered and 116 were under treatment at hos­pitals, isolation wards or quarantine centers.

A total of 8 deaths were reported in the division in­cluding 5 from Rahim Yar Khan district and 3 from Bahawalpur, of which 2 were from Lodhran dis­trict and were in Baha­walpur for treatment but expired before treatment was even started.

“A 400- bed Civil Hospi­tal, 100-bed field hospital and quarantine facility for more than 1000 suspects at hostels of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur were ready to treat corona­virus patients”, he said.

Commissioner said Ba­hawalpur became the first of nine divisions of Punjab to achieve the wheat pro­curement target , adding that target of procuring 853,269 metric ton wheat was set for the division and as of today, 902268 metric ton wheat has been pro­cured which was 6 percent more than the target.