SRINAGAR: District Administration, Srinagar, continuing the initiative of Community Capacity Building in COVID prevention organised a series of conferences at Shalteng, Bemina, Panthachowk and Eidgah Tehsils.
Hundreds of clerics and heads of religious institutions including Mosques, Madarsa, Gurudwaras, Temples, Church and religious educational institutions attended the conferences wherein detailed deliberations were held about community capacity building and education with focus on educating masses about preventive measures to contain COVID spread.
Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar Shahid Iqbal Choudhary along with ADC Hanief Balkhi, SP West Shahzad Salaria, SDM West Hamida Akhter, Tehsildar Shalteng Ishfaq Khan deliberated on various aspects. Experts from Social and Preventive Medicine Dr Saleem Khan and Dr Rabbani Tariq dwelled on the preventive measures to be adopted by public.
DC Srinagar emphasised that public should be encouraged to stay indoors to prevent spread of COVID and wherever leaving homes were necessary it should be indispensable and mandatory to wear mask at public places, adherence to physical distancing norms and avoiding overcrowding. He highlighted the importance of hygiene measures to be adopted by public and sought the active collaboration of religious heads and clerics in spreading the massage in localities.
The participants pledged their active role in creating public awareness about precautions and preventive measures to be adopted for containing spread of COVID-19. A large number of speakers agreed to make appeals to public locally and also devoting time for public communication after Azaan (call for prayers). Pamphlets published in English, Urdu and Kashmiri were distributed with details about precautions to be adopted viz a viz hygiene, masks and physical distancing among others.
At Panthachowk, DC Srinagar along with other officers including Tehsildar Mohammad Younis Bangroo attended the meeting with religious representatives drawn from various areas including Khonmoh, Zevan, Panthachowk and Nowgam.
Later, three different sessions were organised for representatives from different areas at Tehsil Eidgah. DC Srinagar held detailed discussions with clerics and heads of religious institutions seeking their cooperation for educating every person in the vicinity about precautions. Printed material was also provided for distributions. SP North Syed Tahir Gilani, SDM and Tehsildar Eidgah Maeen Kakroo were present among other officers.
The district administration earlier organised such conferences at Tehsil Khanyar and Tehsil North where hundreds of representatives from religious institutions and management of places of worship participated .
The district administration is organising widespread awareness initiative through community outreach and social media eliciting response from public for mandatory adoption of protocols and SOPs aimed at prevention of COVID spread.
