PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan said on Thursday that the provincial government was taking concrete steps to provide maximum facilities and relief to the people of the province during the holy month of Ramazan.

The chief minister said he is personally supervising the provision of relief to the people during Ramazan. The chief minister said this during a meeting with KP Minister for Labour Shaukat Yousafzai and Member Provincial Assembly Fazle Elahi here at the CM Secretariat.

The chief minister said he will make surprise visits to Sasta (subsidized) bazaars for the convenience of the people and check the availability and prices of essential commodities.

The meeting discussed issues related to uninterrupted supply of electricity and gas in and around Peshawar during Ramazan. The chief minister said Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) officials have been directed to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity and gas to consumers during Sehr and Iftar hours.

The minister and lawmaker informed the chief minister about problems being faced by the people related to gas and electricity loadshedding. Mahmood Khan also directed the delegation to visit different subsidized bazaars and check the availability of food items.

Earlier, expressing grave concern over the increasing ratio of coronavirus positive cases, Mahmood Khan directed the officials to launch a special campaign for the implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to contain the spread of the pandemic in KP.

Chairing a meeting to review the current situation of coronavirus, which was attended by Health Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Chief Secretary Kazim Niaz and officials of the Health Department, the chief minister appealed to the citizens to strictly follow the coronavirus SOPs and other precautionary measures, especially the use of facemasks, adding that the public cooperation was essential to efficiently deal with the current situation of coronavirus pandemic.

The meeting was told that average positivity ratio of corona cases in the province was 15.4 percent, adding that testing capacity has been increased to more than 8,000 tests per day. It was also decided to install an oxygen plant to meet the requirement of oxygen in future at the hospitals.