January 8, 2003	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 4, 1423

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GUJRAT, Jan 7: Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has said that Kunjah, Mungowal and Mandi Bahauddin would soon be supplied Sui Gas.

He was speaking at a huge public gathering near the Kunjah Rural Health Centre on Tuesday in connection with the election campaign of the PML-Q nominee for PP-110 (Kunjah), Raja Basharat. The seat would be up for grabs in the by-elections on Jan 15.

The chief minister said his government had taken revolutionary steps for the masses, one of which — the decision to provide free education up to the secondary level — would result in 100 per cent literacy in the province. The standard of education in state-run schools would be made better than that in private schools, he added.

He said the government had already reduced the interest rate on agri loans from 13 to nine per cent, adding that the poor farmers would be given interest-free loans in near future. “The decision of reducing the mark-up on loans for the purchase of agricultural inputs would help bring a green revolution in the province.”

He said small industrial estates would be set up in every district of the province to eliminate unemployment and boost industrial development.

The chief minister said protective dikes would be constructed along Chenab to save the agricultural land from erosion. The Rs1.75 billion project of brick-lining the water courses had already been started throughout the province.

He promised that developmental schemes would be launched in the constituency of every elected representative regardless of his or her political affiliation.

Earlier, the chief minister inaugurated the Government Girls College Kunjah, which was constructed at a cost of Rs18 million, and the work on Mungowal drain.

Later, Mr Pervaiz inaugurated the Rahman Shaheed Road in Gujrat, which was completed at a cost of Rs27 million. He also addressed a public gathering in Lalamusa.

The chief minister was accompanied by District Nazim Chaudhry Shafaat Hussian, Gujrat Tehsil Nazim Mian Haroon Masood and provincial Minister for Education Mian Imran Masood.

DOUBLE MURDER: Some unidentified persons shot dead a woman and her son in Mohallah Tahli Pura in the jurisdiction of a Shaheen Police check-post on Tuesday.

The police said the outlaws had forced their way into the house of Zubair and opened fire on the inmates, killing Mr Zubair on the spot and inflicting serious injuries to his mother, Amina, who breathed her last at the DHQ Hospital.

Shaheen police claimed that Amina’s elder son was involved in the killings. Police sent the bodies to a mortuary for autopsy.

However, no case had been registered till the filling of this report.