LAHORE, Feb 4: As many as 5,000 watercourses are being improved in the province with Rs369 million which have been provided by farmers of the areas concerned as matching assistance.

The project is being carried out under the watercourses improvement programme and the rest of the funds are being provided by the government.

This was informed at a meeting presided over by Chief Secretary Salman Siddique here on Saturday.

Among others, the meeting was attended by secretaries for agriculture, irrigation and finance departments, the national programme on watercourses improvement director and DCOs from 12 districts.

Reviewing the programme, it was informed that during the current fiscal, over Rs679 million had so far been spent on it. Although work on the watercourses programme in most of the districts was going on at full swing, yet the pace was slow at some places.

The chief secretary said economy of the province largely depended on agriculture and it was because of this fact that the programme was of tremendous importance for it. He expressed the satisfaction that the DCOs were taking keen interest in accomplishing the work according to the deadlines.

He inquired about pace of the programme individually from the DCOs in their respective districts. — Staff Reporter