LAHORE: Punjab Housing Minister Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed has announced the launch of some 12,000 low-cost houses from the next month.

In order to ensure speedy construction of houses and give relief to people, he said, the government would amend laws as well as rules and regulations.

Following the footsteps of the National Task Force for Housing, the minister said a Punjab Task Force for Housing would be notified within a day as its members were finalised and approved by the chief minister.

The department will advertise early next month and start receiving applications in Lodhran, Khanewal and Okara – in the first phase.

He told a news conference with regard to housing department’s 100 days plan on Thursday the government was finalising financial models with the Bank of Punjab and House Building Finance Corporation to offer Rs500,000 interest-free loan.

He said the department identified 200,000 kanals for the construction of houses and added that the land identified with a consideration that people could live there. He said there were projects in the past, where houses were constructed but people did not opt to go and live there.

The minister said the Punjab government would be organising an international conference on housing where developers and overseas companies would participate.

Mr Rasheed said the Punjab government had decided to establish a Clean Drinking Water Authority and added that the previous government also established companies and authorities but did not get desired results because their main objective was corruption. He said the PML-N government wasted Rs2.5 billion on consultancy.

The minister said the Punjab government in collaboration with the World Bank would construct washrooms in 4,600 villages with a total cost of Rs3 billion.

He said the government would install water treatment plants at Mahmood Booti, Shadbagh, Babu Sabu and Mohlanwal. He said land for two water treatment plants had been acquired, while process was on to acquire land for other two plants.

The minister said the government had announced 45 days amnesty for those, who were stealing water, and added that such people should get legalised their water connections or the law would take its course.

Mr Rasheed said the government recovered land from land grabbers worth Rs7.5 billion and planted 400,000 trees with the help of Parks and Horticulture Authorities in 10 cities. He said the country’s affairs were now on the right track. “Former President Asif Ali Zardari goes to jail or stays outside does not matter much,” he said and added that the nation had tried the PML-N and PPP for three times but all in vain. “These politicians are now a heap of ash, having no spark,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2018