BAHAWALPUR: Divisional Commissioner Raja Jahanagir Anwar on Tuesday launched a mobile app, Saaf Bahawalpur, of the Bahawalpur Waste Management Company (BWMC) to facilitate the public and keep the city clean, particularly on the occasion of the upcoming Eidul Azha.

In a press conference at the Commissioner`s Office here, he briefed the media on the mobile app. He was accompanied by MNA Mian Najeebuddin Owaisi, Deputy Commissioner Irfan Ali Kathiya, BWMC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Muhammad Naeem Akhtar and other officials.

Mr Anwar claimed that the Saaf Bahawalpur was the first-ever mobile app launched by any wastemanagement company in Punjab so far and it had features like autotracking, geotagging, dashboard and complaint alert. He said the citizens from any part of Bahawalpur could take pictures with the mobile app and identify the heaps of trash and garbage or any other issue pertaining to sanitation.

He asked the citizens to make the best use of this mobile app to play their role in cleanliness of the city, which might bring Bahawalpur the first prize in the cleanliness campaign across Punjab as it had got during the previous years.

The commissioner said the mobile app had been developed with the help of the latest information technology and it was available at the play store of Apple and Android from where it could be easily downloaded by the citizens in their own mobile phones.

Apprising the media about the collection of offal and the waste of sacrificial animals on three days of Eid, Mr Anwar said a door-to-door campaign would be launched and over 100,000 free-of-cost plastic bags would be distributed among the citizens.He said the Eid holidays for about 1,000 sanitary workers and officials would remain suspended for three days to collect the offal and waste of sacrificial animals by 100 minidumpers, trollies, arm-roll trucks, including compacters and dumper trucks. He said the company`s helpline 1139 would also remain active in addition to mobile phone app during the Eid holidays.

The commissioner referred to the strict measures taken by the livestock department also to check the entry of any animals suspected to be carrying the lumpy skin disease to the cattle market or sales points. He said the disease was a big challenge for the department, which had successfully controlled it in the Bahawalpur division and there was no cause of alarm in this regard.

He said all the cattle markets and 11 sales points in district Bahawalpur were equipped with necessary medical and treatment staff members` teams and kits for the needy cattle owners and their herds.

Mr Anwar denied reports of mortalities of the animals by the lumpy skindiseaseinthe cityoritssuburbs during the previous days.