ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: The government has decided to develop new land and water resources in the four provinces at a cost of Rs3.35 billion.

According to sources, the initiative will be supported by various irrigation projects, including the Gomal Zam dam, Mirani dam, Thal canal, Kachi canal, Rainee canal and the National Drainage Programme.

The initiative is being undertaken in the light of a decision taken recently by the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet. The sources said the initiative would be covered under the 10-year Perspective Investment Plan (2001-11), the main objective of which was to alleviate poverty, which could not be reduced despite expenditure of billions of rupees, including the International Monetary Fund's three-year $1.5 billion Poverty Reduction Growth Facility.

Initially, the government has decided to import 1,000 bulldozers through supplier credit to be provided by China and Russia. During the programme's first phase, 300 bulldozers will be given to Balochistan and the NWFP, while the remaining bulldozers will be given to Punjab and Sindh in the second phase.

An official delegation including representatives of the four provinces recently visited Moscow and Beijing to purchase bulldozers to be offered to deserving people on reduced rates.

The government maintains that the country's population is growing at a rate of 2.4 per cent per year from the current 140.5 million and that calls for regular increase in food and fibre production.

The capacity for agriculture land development has been steadily declining because no new crawler tractors could be added to the provinces' fleets after 1994. Under the Water and Power Development Authority's Vision 2025 programme, new water storage reservoirs and canal system are being constructed which, according to officials concerned, are expected to irrigate command areas that are yet to be developed and levelled for agriculture.

State land is also being distributed among landless farmers for poverty reduction in rural areas. Since the lands are not levelled, the provinces have demanded bulldozers for their reclamation.

The major objectives of the programme are: reclamation of cultivable lands, levelling and improvement of existing fields, rehabilitation of land damaged each year by floods and rains, reclamation of fields in saline areas, construction of dykes, embankments and Rod Kohi works and diversion of hill torrents.