ISLAMABAD, Dec 28: The federal government on Friday agreed on distributing an amount of Rs2 billion to all four provinces for rehabilitation and relief operations in the drought-affected areas, Dawn reliably learnt.

A meeting held at the planning division, which was also attended by the representatives of all four provinces, decided to release Rs2 billion as first instalment to the province from a fund of Rs10 billion earlier approved for relief operations, an official said.

The provinces of Sindh and Balochistan, which were worst affected from the drought, got an amount of Rs600 million each, while Punjab and the NWFP got Rs500 million and Rs300 million respectively from the first instalment of Rs2 billion. These funds would be release in instalments after every four months.

“The amounts will be transferred to the provincial governments on Saturday (today),” a source said.