07 March 2005	Monday	25 Muharram 1426

HARIPUR, March 6: State Minister for Finance Omar Ayub Khan has said that the federal government was making all-out efforts to eradicate poverty from the country.

He was speaking to participants of the inaugural ceremony of Sui gas supply project at Chohar Colony here on Saturday evening. The project is estimated to cost Rs 1.78 million.

Omar Ayub Khan said the government was sincerely taking measures to overcome the problem of joblessness, which he said was the root-cause of poverty in the country. For this purpose, Mr Omar said, the government was opening new skill development centres and branches of Khushali Bank in the areas where the incidence of poverty and joblessness had been on the rise for the last many years.

Skill development centres, he said, would serve the purpose of creating skilled labour that would not only earn better living but also actively participate in the process of social-economic development of country in the days to come.

About Khushali Bank, Mr Khan said that a branch would start operating in Haripur from next month, where the youths of the area would get credit on only two personal guarantees enabling them to develop the business of their own choice and earn livelihood in a respectable way, he added.

He informed the gathering that Haripur district would soon be having a shortest access road link connecting with the Capital City via Margala-Choee road, as according to him, the government had accorded approval of a tunnel project.

He was optimistic about accelerated economic activities and amelioration of living standard of the people of Haripur as he believed that tunnel link between Islamabad and Haripur would help bring prosperity in the area. He said that he was also striving to get allocated certain portion from Tarbela's net profit for the people of Haripur.

He also came hard on the provincial government for not spending funds for the development of localities of Tarbela's affected families adding that NWFP government had been receiving Rs six billion annually on account of royalty of Tarbela but not a single penny was ever spent on the welfare of people who sacrificed their lands for this project.

He said that Rs one billion development projects which he got approved from the federal government were underway while the remaining parts of Haripur district would soon get the facilities of Sui gas, roads and telephone exchanges.

Later, he also inaugurated a Trust for Volunteers Organization (TVO) water supply project at village Machan-da-Maira Beer for which the representative of the donor agency handed over the cheque of first installment of Rs 1.3 million out of Rs 4.3 million.