The government would provide a Rs200,000 subsidy per tractor. PHOTO: REUTERS
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Saturday formally inaugurated the wheat harvest in the province at Warah Malik Shah Muhammad Awan village near Lahore.
Addressing a gathering after the inauguration, Sharif congratulated the farmers for attaining a bumper crop this year. “It is because of your hard work and blessings of Almighty Allah that there is a bumper crop this year,” he said.
The chief minister later announced that as many as 10,000 tractors would be provided by the government on concessional rates to small farmers. The government would provide a Rs200,000 subsidy per tractor. Farmers with landholdings of 12.5 acre or less would be eligible for purchase of tractor under the programme, he added. He said the programme would begin in the next fiscal year.
The chief minister assured the farmers in attendance that the government was working to redress their grievances. He said it would be ensured that middle men could not exploit small farmers in the wheat procurement drive.
Provincial Ministers Bilal Yasin and Dr Farrukh Javed, several national and provincial assembly members, secretaries concerned, the Lahore division commissioner and Lahore DCO also attended the ceremony.
Prayers were offered for the prosperity of the country at the occasion.
Cabinet approves labour policy draft
A draft of the Punjab Labour Policy was approved at a cabinet meeting on Saturday.
The meeting also gave conditional approval to the Women Protection Bill of 2015.
A suggestion that all provincial ministers, advisors, special assistants, the chief secretary, the inspector general of the police, departmental secretaries, divisional commissioners, DCOs, RPOs and DPOs should each adopt a government school was also approved at the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
Earlier, Sharif directed the cabinet members to ensure that computerisation of records at all police stations in the province was completed by the end of 2016.
Earlier, he said the $46 billion economic package announced during the Chinese president’s visit included $20 billion for energy generation projects. Of these, he said, projects worth $4.5 billion would be executed in the Punjab.
He said these included coal-based power projects proposed for sites in Sahiwal and Jhelum. He said the Sahiwal plant would have a power generation capacity of 1,320 megawatts and the Jhelum plant 300 megawatts. He said both plants would be completed by December 2017.
The chief minister said work was underway on a solar power project in Bahawalpur with a generation capacity of 900 megawatt. He said he hoped that the plant would start producing electricity by December 2015 and help add 350 megawatts to the national grid. He said the production of the remaining 550 megawatt would begin by September 2016.
The chief minister said work was also underway on upgrade of an electricity transmission line in Bahawalpur.
He said two power transmission lines (4,000 megawatt each) would be laid across the country with Chinese investment worth $2 billion. He said one these would run from Matiyari in Sindh to Faisalabad in the Punjab and the second from Matiyari in Sindh to Lahore in the Punjab.
The cabinet meeting also discussed widening of rural roads, potable water, universal education campaign, and the Lahore Metro Train projects.
The chief minister told the meeting that successful negotiations with Chinese companies had allowed the government to bring down the cost of the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project by Rs100 billion.
He said widening of all roads in rural areas of the province would be completed by 2018. He said Rs15 billion had been allocated for the programme in the current fiscal year.
He said a safe water project (Saaf Pani Project) was being started from Bahawalpur district. He hoped that potable water would be available across the province in three years.
He said education standards across government schools would be improved under the Parho Punjab, Barho Punjab project. He said under the policy of mandatory adoption of government schools by ministers and government officers those adopting the schools would be required to visit the premises at least once a month.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 26th, 2015.
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