LAHORE, June 7: Punjab government’s education reforms programme has been a success, says Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi. “It has enabled us to provide missing facilities in schools,” the chief minister told a pre-budget news briefing where he also listed the ‘achievements’ of his government during the current fiscal.

The main target of the policy, he said, was the primary education because of the reports that around 10 million children were not attending schools. To overcome this problem, he said, the government had introduced free education besides providing free books to students from Class I to V.

He claimed an additional 900,000 students got admission to schools whereas the dropout rate also came down. The success, he said, had also been acknowledged by the World Bank with whom a similar 10-year programme was being discussed.

He said the government would now give free books from Class I to X. The Rs200 scholarship for each girl from class VI to VIII would now be extended up to matric.

About the teachers’ recruitment, he said 15,000 had already been hired while around 20,000 would be engaged during the next fiscal after lifting the job ban. All middle schools would be upgraded during the next two years.

The government, he said, had allocated Rs400 million for education and welfare of neglected special children. During the next fiscal this allocation would be raised to Rs500 million.

The chief minister said the government had created a child protection bureau for the rehabilitation of children forced to beg in streets. The project was launched in Lahore and after seeing its success it was being introduced also in Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur and Rawalpindi.

Many gangs involved in forcing children to beg had been busted and centres for the protection of such children had been created at all major shrines in the province.

He said that children at the rehabilitation centres would be given free education up to matriculation, besides free boarding and lodging facilities. The parents of those children forced to beg owing to poverty were being given financial assistance for self-employment.

Pervaiz Elahi said the government had taken several measures to create job opportunities, creating such an atmosphere in the province which could attract private investment. As a result of the facilities created by the government, around 90 per cent plots in the new Sundar Industrial Estate had been sold out.

“This enabled us to retrieve 90 per cent of the seed money we spared for the creation of the estate. This money will now be reinvested for developing more industrial estates in the province.”

He said 100 per cent plots of the Faisalabad Garment City had been sold out. The government was transferring 3,500 acres for the Faisalabad Industrial Estate. Work on another industrial estate in Multan was also starting in the near future.

The chief minister said the measures adopted for the private investment were giving results. One of the steps was to give free land in the industrial estates to the private party investing up to $25 million in the province.

He said the foundation stone of the $200 million Sheikh Zayed Centre in Lahore had been laid. The project would provide 10,000 direct and 20,000 indirect jobs.

An MoU had been signed with a Dubai party, comprising members of the Royal family, for the creation of a new city around the embankment of the Ravi. Work on the Rs30 billion Lake City project would soon be taken in hand.

The chief minister said the government had also increased its ADP allocations for creating 150,000 jobs. This trend would continue during the next fiscal. The government had for the first time in the country’s history made $3 billion investment in Chakwal, creating 40,000 jobs there during the past over two years.

“We are thankful to the president and the prime minister in helping remove bottlenecks there,” he said.

According to the chief minister, many projects in the health sector had also been successful. The pilot project of emergency ambulance service in Lahore gave positive results and was being also introduced in seven other major cities during the next fiscal. The personnel working for the service in Lahore were being given fire-fighting equipment to also provide rescue service in case of any major fire.

He said the Rs1 billion Multan Cardiac Centre was about to start functioning. Two more such centres would be established in Faisalabad and Wazirabad, and burn centres in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi.

Under the health-sector reform programme, he said, missing facilities were being provided in all basic health units. The rural health centres, too, were being upgraded, providing excellent residential facility to doctors and also allowing them to do private practice in their centres. Tehsil and district headquarters hospitals were also being upgraded from this year.

He said arrangements had been made to provide better training to nurses in Lahore and Multan. Two new nursing training colleges were being established during the next fiscal year where master trainers from England would impart training. Such training facilities for the para-medical staff, too, would be provided to ensure quality health care.

The chief minister said the government was launching a Rs1.75 billion project for upgrading sewerage and water supply in 27 tehsils in southern Punjab where people were contracting hepatitis because of drinking polluted and dirty water. The project would be completed by the provincial government because of lack of capacity by the tehsil administrations to conduct such work.

He said the government had exempted land holdings up to 12.5 acres from agriculture tax and introduced flat rate of abiana. This increased the revenue which was given to tail-end farmers as a rebate.

About irrigation, Pervaiz Elahi said the government was lining canals for better water management and had doubled allocation for agricultural research. It had also decided to promote the livestock sector, providing loans to farmers up to Rs50,000 on personal surety for rearing cattle. The government had given Rs1.75 billion loan to such farmers through the Bank of Punjab.

He said the government was providing a chiller for every 10 union councils for the safe transportation of milk. The pilot project of providing medical cover to cattle in villages had been a success and would be introduced at the level of 10 union councils from the next fiscal.

The chief minister said 30 big agriculture markets were being improved and efforts made to provide for warehouse facilities to farmers. “We have attracted a major European company which is establishing three large stores in the province where 10,000 farmers will sell their produce for local and foreign consumption. Starting from Lahore, the company will invest $2 million in next two years.”

He said the overall irrigation policy was basically aimed at improving the existing system, selecting the most decayed canals first for their lining and repair. Four small dams had been constructed for giving water to Potohar areas having no irrigation system.

Four new dams would be constructed during the next fiscal year, selecting 11 additional sites for more such facilities. The government had made a five-year Rs31 billion irrigation improvement programme, which had been appreciated by the World Bank.

He said the bank had promised to give $60 million for computerization of land record, which would rid people of patwaris and help them easily obtain loans from banks.

An IT park was being established in Lahore and computerized number plates of vehicles would be introduced in December this year.

The chief minister said the communication and works department had provided a lot of jobs to people by launching a number of development projects. It constructed a record number of roads and now planned to construct farm-to-market roads.

“We are going to widen inter-district roads besides constructing the Lahore ring road. A permission by the federal government to approve Rs5 billion projects would greatly help provinces to speedily complete development projects.”

He said several steps had been adopted to control pollution, making Lahore pollution free in next three years by replacing two-stroke rickshaws and motorcycle rickshaws with four-stroke CNG rickshaws.

The chief minister said those holding a valid driving licence would be given Bank of Punjab loans for purchasing the four-stroke rickshaws being produced by local companies. The programme was also being launched in Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad and Bahawalpur during the next fiscal year.

He said police patrol posts would greatly help in providing security to people. Around 250 such posts had been constructed and 10,000 constables recruited for them.

He said the record of cases to be registered at the instance of such patrol posts would be feeded to a computer system centrally located in the home department for monitoring their progress. The total number of such posts was 500 and another 100 would be established, if required.

Replying to questions, the chief minister said the government had outsourced a teacher training programme by engaging two private institutions for the purpose. “The teacher training has been a weak area, but it will improve now.”

The capacity of Tevta was further being improved so as to produce a maximum of skilled labour.

He said the government had already framed rules for regulating the functioning of housing colonies and taking action against those defrauding people.

The government, he said, would consider providing free medical facility to journalists and writers. The issue of journalists’ colony in Lahore would be decided soon. Cabinet ministers, senior government officers and a number of senior journalists and communists were also present during the briefing.