LAHORE: The Punjab government plans to construct four small dams to harvest hill torrents of Koh-i-Sulaiman area and Chief Minister Usman Buzdar gave in-principle approval for the spade work and construction of these reservoirs.

Chairing a meeting at his office on Tuesday, where the irrigation secretary apprised him of different matters related to the dams’ construction, the chief minister stated that the Punjab government was pondering over different options for building small dams as such water reservoirs are need of the hour.

A large quantity of hill-torrents’ water is wasted every year and the project will help save natural resources for different purposes, including provision of clean drinking water to the people of backward areas. A technical study was underway in this regard in the first phase.

REFORMS: The CM gave in-principle approval to a plan for introducing biometric verification system for motor vehicles’ registration in the province.

For this purpose, the Punjab Motor Vehicles Rules, 1969, will be amended to allow biometric verification for the vehicles registration instead of transfer order forms.

On the occasion, the CM stated the government was going to transform the archaic vehicle registration system to make it commensurate with the modern-day needs. Now, the citizens would be able to get their vehicles registered through Nadra and Excise office using biometric verification and this facility would also be available at showrooms of authorised motor dealers.

The CM directed that a plan be devised for introducing biometric verification of applicants at their homes through cellular phone application.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2020