September 30, 2008	Tuesday	Ramazan 29, 2008

KARACHI, Sept 29: The Sindh government has asked district coordination officers to complete the data related to the available state land so that woman peasants without land of their own are granted a piece of land.

The DCOs of all the districts, where the state land has been marked for this purpose, were asked to ensure accuracy of the available government land by verifying the revenue records and submit their reports within a week after Eid-ul-Fitr.

The directives were issued in a meeting, which was presided over by Chief Secretary Fazal-ur-Rehman, held on Monday.

Sources said that Thatta, Badin, Sukkur, Larkana, Jacobabad, Shahdadkot, Khairpur, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto (formerly known as Nawabshah), Ghotki, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Umerkot, Dadu, Shikarpur and Kashmore had been identified as areas where the state land was available.

They said that 221,261-acre state land was available in the province. This included 142,536.21 acres in the barrage area, 45,358.15 acres in the Kachcha area and 33,367 acres in the Barani area, the sources added.

In the meeting, the chief secretary made it clear that land would be granted to women even if applications on their behalf were submitted by their male relatives. He said that the policy was made to benefit women, who were the most marginalised section of the province’s population.

He asked the DCOs to expedite the work, directing officials of the national programme for improvement of water courses to extend assistance in this regard. It may be mentioned here that most of the work under the national programme for improvement of water courses has been carried out in villages.—Staff Reporter