27 February 2004	Friday	06 Muharram 1425

ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: The federal government has directed all the four provinces to work out their new welfare programmes to create favourable economic and social conditions for their people and, as a first step , Punjab has submitted its Rs7.4 billion five-year programme for approval to the Planning Commission.

One of the major objectives, official sources told Dawn, was to restrict the alarming population growth that was mainly contributing to widespread poverty and unsustainable development across Pakistan.

The country's population will reach to 217 million by the year 2020 from the present 140 million. And the Punjab government plans to reduce the population growth rate from the present 2.1 per cent to 1.59 per cent by 2007-08.

The unabated increase in the population is contributing to the growth of slums, shanty towns, traffic congestion and shortage of basic infrastructure and facilities in the urban areas.

The Punjab authorities, in the proposed five-year programme (2003-08), has said the environmental problems are becoming unmanageable, particularly in the large cities of Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Multan which are also affected due to migration from rural areas.

The provincial government has assured that its five-year welfare programme will receive "stronger political and administrative support at all levels" to ensure that the overall population coverage increases from 80 per cent to 100 percent, including the remote areas.

The programme, the Punjab government maintains, is not only for slowing of population growth, but for the general welfare of the people as well. The objective is to reduce mortality rate, enhance education activities, specially for women, and create better economic conditions to alleviate poverty.

The broad approach and strategies to be pursued under the programme include: Family planning services in the rural areas will be made available at the doorstep of the people through male mobilizers in 330 union council; mobile service facilities will be expanded and strengthened for covering far-flung villages having no access to family planning services; the existing family welfare centres network will be expanded to 1,500 centres in a phased manner during the plan period; more hospitals in public and private sectors will be involved as rural health services centres for contraceptive surgery facilities; involvement of 3,381 health outlets of health department and health outlets of provincial line department will be made effective; and the implementation of the programme will be reviewed quarterly by the ministry of population to assess the progress and make adjustments in the field experience within the overall approved framework of the programme.