RAWALPINDI, May 13: Punjab government will spend a sum of Rs6 billion during the next fiscal year to bring improvement in education sector, said Chief Minister Pervaiz Illahi here on Tuesday.

Speaking at a meeting which was attended among others by the members of national and provincial assemblies and district Nazims of Rawalpindi division, he asked the public representatives to identify educational institutions which lacked facilities as well as those which qualified for upgradation.

The funds, he said, would be spent on improving training facilities and meeting the shortage of teachers.

The chief minister said that for the first time wheat procurement centres have been set up in Rawalpindi division and the public representatives should supervise them so as to ensure that farmers got the price of their crops as per direction of the government.

He asked the MNAs, MPAs and Nazims to identify mega projects in their constituencies so that people could benefit from the uplift projects, adding that the provincial government would finance such projects.

Speaking about the release of funds for the public representatives, he said the grant of Rs50 million allocated to each MPA had already been released throughout the province.

He said the provincial government would fulfil its promise of providing employment to the youth and for this purpose the ban on recruitment would be lifted next month. The government, he added, planned to recruit 25,000 youth against vacant posts.

Mr Pervaiz stressed the importance of an increased coordination between MNAs, MPAs and Nazims as well as better interaction with the masses so that the problems of the common man could be solved.

As a step for strengthening the PML (Q) at the grassroots level, he asked the representatives to make the PML Houses centres of activities for maintaining contact with the people.

The chief minister asked the police to deliver, adding that efforts had been made to enhance the capacity of the police manifold through the provision of better equipment and transport. Besides, he said, the government had increased the allocations of funds for the department.

He said a mechanism for checking the movement of criminals into the NWFP and vice versa was being worked out. “The district police officers (DPOs) of the areas adjoining NWFP have been asked to maintain a better liaison with their counterparts in the neighbouring districts of NWFP.”

He said NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani had assured him of his full cooperation in this regard.

Mr Pervaiz also directed the police officials not to hesitate in registering dacoity cases and not to convert them into simple theft cases. He said action would be taken against those found violating these instructions.