MIRPUR: The Azad Jammu & Kashmir government on Monday said it was extending the ongoing lockdown across the state till April 21 in order to maintain the prevailing measures to overcome the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the area.
Addressing a presser, Minister for Population Welfare and Information Technology Dr Mustafa Bashir said the state coordination committee would review further extension in the lockdown period in its scheduled meeting to be held on April 20 with Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan in the chair.
Dr Bashir revealed that the AJK government was seriously contemplating to give the conditional home quarantine facility to masses in AJK through launching the state-wide awareness drive to this direction.
Dr. Mustafa Bashir said the AJK government had requested the government of Pakistan to ensure the disbursement of Rs12,000/- per family financial relief – oriented Prime Minister Imran Khan’s “Ehsas Program’’ among the deserving families in AJK through all branches of the scheduled banks.
He underlined that at present the financial relief under the above program was being extended through a single bank in AJK, which, he added, lacked the timely payment of the amount under the program.
The minister revealed that since mostly the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic in AJK was not emerged as homegrown, the government may facilitate the local growers in Mirpur and Bhimbher districts to resume the work if none of the cultivator from outside AJK was formally engaged in the business.
