LAHORE: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says a number of welfare and development programmes are being implemented expeditiously in Punjab and elsewhere to resolve basic problems of the people.

The prime minister was presiding over a meeting at Model Town on Monday to review various development projects.

Nawaz reportedly criticised the elements which attempted to stop implementation of the Kissan Package (in the name of pre-poll rigging).

He said the masses had rejected such elements in the local government polls. He hoped the package would provide relief to cultivators.

The prime minister said relief work for the flood-affected people had started without wasting any time and he was personally supervising the provision of assistance to the calamity-hit people.

He urged the elected representatives to spare no effort for the provision of education and health facilities, potable water, infrastructure development and solution to other basic issues of the people.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who also attended the meeting, was quoted as informing the prime minister under the first phase of the rural roads programme, construction and rehabilitation work on more than 2,000 kilometre roads had been completed and now the second phase of the project was in progress.

Similarly, the chief said, the project of supply of potable water to the rural population, which was started from south Punjab, would be completed by the end of 2017.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2015