HYDERABAD, Dec 9: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has said the president and the prime minister are interested in spreading an industrial network to provide jobs to people and alleviate poverty in the province.

Inaugurating a 40-bed Matiari taluka hospital on Wednesday night, he said not only expansion of existing industrial sites was being planned but establishment of new sites was also under consideration to enhance economic activities and raise the living standard of people of rural areas.

The chief minister said the Sindh government was preparing a recruitment policy to fill vacancies in provincial departments on merit basis. He said his government believed in real and sustainable development in each field and a transparent policy was being adopted to achieve this objective. He alleged that previous governments had ignored merit.

He said the basic source of livelihood of people of rural areas was agricultural. He said efforts were being made to ensure fair distribution of available water so that tail-end farmers could get their share and maximum land was brought under cultivation.

Dr Rahim said his government was giving priority to improvement of law and order so that lives and properties of people could be protected. He said he had been informed that the regional police had launched a campaign against criminals and achieved considerable success. He enquired from the RPO during his speech about arrests of culprits and directed him to ensure that crimes were controlled in the area.