SWABI, Jan 4: Provincial education minister Maulana Fazal Ali said on Saturday that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government had started a record number of development projects in Swabi district tosolve the problems facing the people.

The minister told a press conference here that the government had sanctioned the construction of various roads to improve the communication system. The roads included Adina-Chota Lahor, Kalabat-Zarobi, Jehangira-Swabi, Kernel Sher Khan Chowk, Shewa road, Mangalchahi road, Besak bridge, Pabini causeway and Zaida bypass.

He said the construction work on some of the projects had already started.Maulana Fazal Ali said the government had also sanctioned Rs5.4 million for the establishment of a fire brigade in Swabi.

Another Rs2.7 million had been earmarked for the existing judicial lock-up, he said, adding that a new lock-up would be constructed in the Shahmansoor township.

About the educational institutions, he said that post-graduate classes had started in the Swabi Degree College, while two girls colleges had been opened with the assistance of Frontier Education Foundation.

Similarly, he said, the existing schools in Sheraghund, Adina, Mansabdar, Gadi, Thand Kohi, Kalabat Zarobi, Jehangira and Shahmansoor had been upgraded to provide better educational facilities to the students.

Replying to a question about tobacco growers' plight, he said the chief minister had already told the major companies - Pakistan Tobacco Company and Lakson Tobacco Company - that the government wanted to create a third force "to end their domination and exploitative tactics."

He said the government also desired to hold talks with the federal government to make tobacco an exportable commodity. The provincial government, he said, was making efforts to get rebate on electricity for the entrepreneurs of Gadoon industrial estate "because they confronted a number of problems due to locational disadvantage."