PESHAWAR: The administrative secretaries of six Khyber Pakhtunkhawa departments have been empowered to get standard operating procedures (SOPs) implemented after the provincial government allowed some industries to restart operations amid the coronavirus crisis.
According to the SOPs drafted by the government, the employers will make sure the social distancing among workers and provide them face masks, proper sanitary facilities, soaps, sanitisers and safe transportation.
The KP government has appointed two secretaries in Peshawar and one each in Haripur, Swabi, Nowshera and Dera Ismail Khan districts to ensure SOPs in factories.
According to a statement issued by the KP’s Chief Secretary, the secretaries of primary and secondary education will look after all industrial states in Peshawar; the secretary housing will enforce SOPs in Nowshera; the secretary administration will perform duty in Dera Ismail Khan; the secretary higher education will keep an eye on industries in Haripur; while the secretary irrigation will implement such SOPs in Swabi district.
The secretaries along with the concerned staff, officers of the Department of Industry and Labour will supervise and visit each industrial unit to ensure the implementation of anti-COVID-19 guidelines.
They will also implement the SOPs in the labour colonies to help prevent the spread of virus along with business activities.
The Director Generals of Excise, Sports and Tourism Authority have also been entrusted with the responsibility of reviewing labour colonies in all districts of the province.
All officers have been instructed to submit their comprehensive report by April 27.
The officials will also oversee the construction work such as the construction of drinking water, irrigation and local government and will implement the necessary SOPs to prevent the virus spread.
After the federal government eased the lockdown, the KP government has also allowed the operation of agricultural machinery and eased supply chain in the province as well opening of poultry and feed supplies, including fertilisers and seeds.
The industries to be opened include cement factories in Nowshera, Lakki Marwat, Kohat, Nizampur and Khatar.
The provincial government has also exempted tobacco processing units in Mardan, Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera and Swabi; and sugar mills in Mardan, DI Khan and Peshawar. Besides, oil and ghee mills, food packaging plastics industry and pharmaceutical factories have also been allowed to re-start business activities.
Provincial Relief Department’s spokesman Latif-ur-Rahman told Pakistan Today that formal SOPs have been issued by the departments of Industry and Labour to all concerned industries, which have been allowed to start operation.
All those industrial units who were found violating SOPs would be sealed, he added.
