‘Artificial rain system being launched in Cholistan’
The Additional Chief Secretary of South Punjab, Capt. (Retd.) Saqib Zafar, said that the South Punjab Secretariat had put the region on a new path to development.
He expressed these views while talking to a delegation of 36 officers who had been undergoing training at the Pakistan Administrative Service at the Civil Service Academy.
The delegation had called on the additional chief secretary at his office in Multan on Tuesday. The Secretary of Agriculture of South Punjab, Saqib Ali Ateel, the Secretary of Services of South Punjab, Amjad Shoaib Khan Tareen, and the Deputy Director of the Civil Service Academy, Rehmat Wali Khan, were also present during the meeting.
The additional chief secretary said that now not even a single penny could be transferred from development funds allocated in the budget out of South Punjab. Likewise, an integrated mechanism had been developed for the timely resolution of public grievances.
He said the secretariat office system had been digitized, and e-filing system introduced for official correspondence. The under-construction Secretariat would also be a reflection of corporate culture.
The official said that South Punjab played a key role in the agricultural production of the country. He said that cotton cultivation had been done on record land in South Punjab, and it was expected that better cotton yield would prove to be the ladder of economic development of the country.
He said that the government had been making plans for dairy development and corporate farming. The food security needs could be met by turning the desert of Cholistan and Thal of the region into green fields.
The additional chief secretary said that a pilot project of artificial rain system for irrigation purposes was being launched in Cholistan, and in the first phase, a target of making six million acres of land cultivable had been set.
He said that the service delivery of the subordinate departments was improving and attendance of doctors and paramedical staff being ensured in rural health centers due to the monitoring of the administrative secretaries.
He said that according to the results of recent matriculation exams, the education boards of South Punjab were at the top in the entire province. Similarly, South Punjab was leading in the enrollment campaign in schools, he added.
He said that Sobh-e-Nau and transgender schools were proud initiatives of the School Education Department while UNICEF had also praised launching of Green Book in schools regarding climate change.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 16th, 2023.