ABBOTTABAD: Chairman and members of the Standing Committee of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Agriculture and Livestock Department have shown concern over construction of housing societies on agricultural lands and asked the authorities concerned not to allow such construction activities.

MPA Arbab Jehandad, the chairman, and members of the committee MPAs Ziaullah Bangash, Shah Faisal, Ruqiya Beena, Amna Sardar and Zareen Zia visited the Hazara agriculture research centre, veterinary research centre, livestock lab and agriculture facilitation centre here on Wednesday.

They were briefed by Aurangzeb Tanoli, director agriculture, Abbottabad, and Dr Zaheer, director Hazara agriculture centre, regarding working of the centres.

Chairman of the committee said that the basic purpose of the visits of different centers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was to monitor the performance of the department as the government had been giving due importance to the agriculture sector. He said that the government was planning to equip the farmers with the latest techniques and methods to be used to improve the farm output.

Mr Jehandad said that new slaughterhouses were being constructed in the entire province. He warned that all illegal and private slaughterhouses would be sealed and heavy fine imposed on owners of unauthorized ones.

He said that the provincial government would establish veterinary dispensaries for which sites would be selected after consultation with local stakeholders. He said that the government had distributed wheat seeds among farmers to get better yield.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2016