ISLAMABAD, Sept 12: The steering committee for the National Environmental Action Plan Support Programme (NEAPSP) in its first meeting here on Thursday approved various projects worth Rs38.60 million.

According to an official statement, the meeting was presided over by the minister for environment, rural development and local government, Barrister Shahida Jamil.

It said the ministry had earmarked Rs9.60 million to promote the concept of sustainable development with special focus on Azad Jammu and Kashmir region and mass awareness throughout the country through media and educational institutions.

The ministry will spend Rs29 million on establishment of vehicular emission testing centres to control vehicular emissions in major cities of Sindh. Besides this, the meeting also discussed water conservation projects and project for greening the curriculum at primary level by integrating environmental issues in the syllabus.

The statement said the government was also working towards developing a poverty reduction strategy and efforts were fairly advanced in this regard. In this context, the government of Pakistan and United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) have jointly developed the National Environmental Action Plan Support Programme. The programme nationally executed by the ministry with the help of international donors proposed a wide range of technical, institutional, regulatory, social and economic interventions in terms of different initiatives grouped under six sub-programmes. These are: policy coordination and environmental governance; energy conservation and renewable; dry land management and water conservation; pollution control; ecosystems management and natural resources conservation and support for grass roots initiatives.

It further added programme management unit of the NEAPSP had been coordinating with the provinces for the finalization of the projects to be considered in future. It was also decided in the meeting the subprogramme implementations committee would be formed to review the projects at the initial stage which would save the time of steering committee.

The meeting was attended by the UNDP resident representative, Onder Yucer, the secretary environment and representatives from planning commission and economic division.