HARIPUR, April 23: To overcome water shortage and bring unused land under cultivation, a small dam will be constructed near village Chapra of Union Council Rehana here.

This was stated by the District Nazim Haripur Dr Raja Amir Zaman while speaking at a public gathering in village Kamalpur here the other day.

M. Riaz, Nazim Union Council Rehana presided over the meeting.

The District Nazim said that the approval to this project, the cost of which has been estimated at Rs10 millions, has been given by the NWFP government on the recommendation of the district government, Haripur, under the Drought Emergency Relief Assistant Programme.

The district government, he said, has also allocated a sum of Rs6 million for rehabilitation of Kahl-Mirpur Road, and another amount of Rs1.4 million for carpeting of Kamalpur Road of Union Council Rehana, and eight to 10 tube wells will be installed in each union council of district Haripur.

The District Nazim said that under an agricultural development programme about 30 per cent concession was being provided to the farmers on the purchase of certain agricultural inputs, while soft-term agricultural loans were also available to the farmers of this area.

Promising to establish a school at Sardari Bang, and allocate financial resources for the construction of a road in this remote area of the union council the District Nazim further said that certain small development projects would be completed in this union council at a cost of over three million rupees under Sarhad Rural Support Programme.

Emphasizing the need for giving a mandate to President Musharraf for another five-years term through the forthcoming referendum, Raja Amer Zaman hoped that the president’s success would not only provide a sustainable footing to the government’s policies, but it would also ensure fulfilment of those promises that the president had made during his public meeting at Abbottabad to mitigate the miseries of the people of this district.

He, therefore, asked the people as well as the elected councillors to play an active role in making the referendum a success.

Other speakers at the gathering were Muhammad Riaz, Nazim UC Rehana, Chaudhary Zaheer, Nazim UC Hattar, Khurshid Khan, Nazim UC Ali Khan, Malik Akram, Nazim UC Barila, Abdul Hameed, Nazim UC Pind Kamal Khan. Haji M. Riaz, Naib Nazim UC Rehana in his welcome address highlighted the problems of the area.