MULTAN, March 27: The Punjab government is likely to allocate Rs300 million for the development of kutcha abadis in the next fiscal year.

This was stated by the director-general of Kutcha Abadis and Urban Development, Punjab, Malik Javed Iqbal Awan, while talking to journalists here on Wednesday.

He said Rs150 million had been allocated for the kutcha abadis in the ongoing fiscal which meant that the government had doubled the amount in the next financial year.

Mr Awan said 46 kutcha abadis were being provided basic infrastructure like sewerage and water supply during the current fiscal. Next year, 100 more kutcha abadis would be provided civic amenities.

He said there were 937 kutcha abadis in the province. Of them, 575 had been developed since 1991-92. A sum of Rs800 million was earmarked for their development that year. The remaining kutcha abadis needed Rs700 million for development.

“In the face of financial crunch, the government has planned to develop kutcha abadis in phases,” he added. “The government is laying emphasis on providing basic amenities to the dwellers of these areas.”

He said most of the kutcha abadis in Multan had been developed during 1991-92. The Multan Development Authority (MDA) had, however, submitted a plan for the upkeep of the developed kutcha abadis which would be considered in the annual development programme (ADP) for the next fiscal.

Mr Awan said in a recent meeting held to review the development of pre-1985 recognized kutcha abadis, the governor had directed to establish parks where the land was available and supply gas.

Earlier, Mr Awan visited the Odanwali Basti established on 45 kanals of Nishtar Hospital land along with principal executive officer of the hospital and college Dr Ashiq Pervez. The hospital management wanted to construct the proposed institute of cardiology on the piece of land. But 85 families had been occupying the land.

Dr Pervez told Mr Awan that most of the occupants on the Nishtar land were well-off people. However, the DG went to the site and found people living in miserable conditions in the absence of basic civic amenities.

He announced on the spot that the residents would be given proprietary rights and declared the locality a recognized kutcha abadi.

He said it would not affect the project to set up an institute of cardiology as the governor was likely to select one of the three sites, other than the ‘Odanwali’ basti, he inspected for the institute during his visit to Multan.