BAHAWALPUR: Punjab Minister for Cooperatives Iqbal Channar says the chief minister will be approached to restore special quota for south Punjab and Cholistan youth in the government jobs.

Mr Channar, who has been recently nominated as chairman of the Cholistan Development Authority board which the chief minister himself had quit as he (being the CM) could not chair the board, was presiding over a consultative workshop on “Preparation of PC-II for Developing 10-year Integrated Development Plan for Cholistan” at local Circuit House on Saturday.

The minister regretted that the quota fixed by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) for the youth of south Punjab and Cholistan was abolished many years back and now the CM would be requested to restore it through an executive order. He said the Punjab government would be requested to establish degree colleges, vocational schools and cattle markets in Cholistan.

Iqbal Channar expressed concern at the land mafia illegally occupying thousands of acres of land in the vast desert and declared that the Punjab government would retrieve the land from the land grabbers. He stressed that priority would be given to the promotion of water resources, education, health and livestock in Cholistan in accordance with the vision of the chief minister.

Punjab parliamentary secretary for irrigation MPA Khalid Jajja claimed that both Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif were paying special attention to the development of Cholistan.

He referred the CM’s Cholistan Relief Package and the construction of a barrage at Mailsi Syphon link at the cost of Rs5 billion to provide irrigation water to Yazman canals to irrigate the Cholistan areas.

Commissioner Saqib Zafar said the government had sanctioned 1,200 cusecs canal water from Mailsi Syphon link for Bahawalpur from the next year. He said the pace of work would be accelerated on the ongoing uplift projects in the desert.

Earlier, Cholistan Development Board Managing Director Naeem Iqbal Bokhari with the help of documentary film on Cholistan informed the house the workshop was aimed at planning for enhancing socio-economic status of the masses of Cholistan. He said that out of 22,651 applicants, the eligible persons in accordance with the government’s criteria would be allotted land in Cholistan soon by the Punjab government. He expressed his inability to retrieve land from Qabza mafia as the CDA had no its own police force.

On the implementation of the Cholistan Package of Rs2.3billion announced by the CM on March 21, 2014, Mr Bokhari said so far the government had released Rs1.3 billion out of which Rs1.1 billion had been utilised on the projects, including of 220km long roads in the desert. He said Rs518m will be spent on the extension of 432km long water supply line from Kudwala to Banna in Cholistan.

Dr Shabbir Shahid, director livestocks, Bahawalpur division, Muhammad Amjad, chief executive officer (CEO) of Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park (QASP), Zubair Kiyani, general manager of Blondal Research Firm (water specialist), and others also spoke.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2016