Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has formally approved free treatment for children suffering from cochlear disorders adding that the cognitive learning abilities are of paramount importance among children and the provincial government will go all out in helping children suffering from these diseases, said an official handout issued here on Tuesday. According to details, a total of 127 requests have been received through Chief Minister’s Cell and other welfare organizations from 25 districts of the province. Nine cases have also been received from the merged districts including District Aurakzai, Bajaur, Kurram and Khyber. The treatment will incur a total cost of Rs 250 million and will be carried out in three phases as approved by the chief minister. In the first phase, 38 children belonging to flood hit districts of the province ie: Charsadda, DI Khan, Shangla and Swat districts will be prioritized whereas in the second phase, families having three or more children with cochlear diseases will be provided with free treatment. The remaining cases will be treated in the third phase. The chief minister directed that families should be informed phase wise in order to ensure prior preparedness adding that youngest children should be prioritized in order to ensure that their cognitive learning abilities are restored on priority basis. Mahmood Khan said that hearing ability is directly linked with cognitive learning and any disorder directly affects the overall learning process among children. He added that immediate treatment of children suffering from this disease is of paramount importance in order to enable them to live a complete, healthy and conscious life. Touching upon the priority initiatives taken by his government in health sector, Mahmood Khan said that the provincial government is not only aware of the problems faced by people in the health sector but has also taken multiple steps to provide quality and free healthcare to its citizens. The chief minister said that extension of Sehat Insaf Card to cent percent population of the province is undoubtedly an unprecedented effort of the government under which millions of people across the province have been provided with free treatment facilities so far. Apart from this, significant resources are being spent on revamping the hospitals and healthcare centers in the province in order to provide best treatment facilities to people at their doorsteps. Special Secretary assures foolproof security for polio teams: Special Secretary Home and Tribal Affairs Pervez Khan on Tuesday assured foolproof security arrangements for polio teams during the upcoming vaccination drive that would start from October 24 in 28 districts of the province. Presiding over a meeting of Provincial Security Coordination Committee here, he directed all the line departments to make the vaccination drive successful and target oriented so that the disease could be eliminated from the province. During the meeting it was informed that the week-long vaccination drive would be launched completely in 17 districts of the province and partially in 11 districts. Around 18,747 teams would participate in the campaign, including 16,789 mobile teams, 746 transit, 1147 fixed and 65 roaming teams with a total of 34,072 polio workers. The vaccination drive will be launched in Peshawar and Khyber on October 22 and continue till October 30. The meeting was attended by officers of police, civil administrations and line departments.