November 11, 2008	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 12, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 10: Modalities of the Sindh government’s low-cost housing project have been finalised and preparations are under way to earmark land for the construction of 500 housing units for low-income groups in Karachi, Thatta and Badin in the first phase.

This was stated by the officials concerned at a meeting of secretaries held here on Monday under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Fazlur Rehman. All DCOs of the province have been asked to identify suitable land available for the purpose within their respective districts at the earliest.

The chief secretary also took notice of complaints regarding low-quality wheat-flour in certain areas of the province and directed the secretary concerned to initiate action against those responsible for supply of substandard flour to markets.

Issuing directives on the issue of potable water, he called for accelerating the pace of work on the government’s “Clean drinking water for all” project. He said condition of water courses should also be improved to avoid contamination.

The secretaries were asked to treat all those schemes duly forwarded by the chief minister as priority cases and submit to him their summaries regarding funds requirement. He said implementation of the uplift projects in a transparent manner must be ensured.

He also asked for a weekly report regarding implementation of the Benazir Bhutto Youth Development Programme.

Stressing the need for promotion of sports, the chief secretary told DCOs to improve condition of playgrounds and form sports teams at district level.

The health secretary informed the meeting that a sum of Rs80 million out of Rs2 billion allocated for the treatment of Hepatitis B and C had since been released.

The chief secretary issued directives for accelerating the process of implementation/early completion of various development schemes pertaining to education, health, social welfare, local government, public health engineering, etc.