LAHORE, Oct 29: On the recommendation of Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool, the federal government has withdrawn application fees on revolving agriculture finance loan and the renewal of loans.
This was stated during a meeting which was presided over by Governor Khalid Maqbool here at the Governor's House on Friday. The meeting was informed that the Agriculture Development Bank used to receive 1.5 per cent application fees on loans being advanced under the one-window operation and one per cent on those given under the general conditions. Its withdrawal would provide a total of Rs120 million relief to the farmers obtaining agriculture loans.
The meeting reviewed implementation of governor's directives about the provision of relief to people by the federal departments and their follow-ups. The meeting was informed that around 60 per cent such directives had been implemented whereas steps were being taken to implement the remaining.
It was stated a proposal to review ceiling for the production credit for different crops had also been sent to the board of directors of the ADB and following its approval farmers could get more loans for purchasing weedicides.
The meeting was informed that under directives from the governor branch managers of the ADB had been authorized to issue loans up to Rs 100,000 for breeding cattle in villages. More branches of the bank would be opened in Multan, Lodhran and Bahawalnagar where women would especially be given micro-credit.
It was stated that all villages and localities falling within two kilometres of the 11kv transmission lines would be electrified. Wapda had amended its rules, allowing district governments and assembly members to allocate funds for the electrification of new residential schemes in cities.
Similarly, Wapda would itself replace defective power meters. But stern action would be taken against those found guilty of tampering with their meters or using any other means to steal power.
It was stated that under the president's agriculture package quota for providing transformers for the installation of tubewells had been abolished. Now, all applications by farmers for tubewell connections would be entertained, allowing installation of separate power meters for the residential quarters attached to the agriculture tubewells.
The meeting was informed that the PTCL had installed a 7,500-line new exchange in Jauhar Town, Lahore, besides repairing the switching equipment. It was stated that 8,400 new students had been enrolled in 16 public universities in the province this year.
The governor expressed satisfaction over the beginning of classes in UET's sub-campus in Faisalabad from Oct 30. The classes in the Taxila UET's sub-campus in Chakwal would start from the next academic session.
It was stated that the interior ministry had approved preparation of DNA database of criminals in the Punjab University's Centre of Excellence for Molecular Biology. However, samples for the purpose would be collected by the forensic science laboratory.
