March 9, 2006	Thursday	Safar 8, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, March 8: Federal Minister for Population Welfare Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain has said that the government has increased the budgetary allocation for the Population Welfare Programme (PWP) in the Northern Areas form Rs 6.662 million to Rs 67 million.

In an official statement issued here on Wednesday, the minister said that the government attached high priority to the uplift of reproductive health and social welfare of Gilgit- Baltistan. The purpose of this 10 per cent increase in allocation was to put the programme in the NAs economically on strong footing in order to make it function efficiently.

For its smooth functioning, he said, the government had decentralised the programme in the region by creating 163 posts in different cadres. The aim of decentralisation was to enable the area to fully participate in the national population welfare programme.