ISLAMABAD, July 20: The government will provide Rs10 billion to the federal Ministry of Food for lining and improvement of 18,000 water courses in the country during the current fiscal year.

This was stated by federal Minister of Food Sikandar Hayat Bosan while speaking at a news conference after a meeting of the national programme for improvement of water courses here on Thursday.

The programme, launched in 2004, aims at improving 86,000 water course countrywide at an estimated cost of Rs66 billion in five years and would create 11,000 direct and 40,000 indirect jobs.

He said the government had already allocated Rs6 billion for the purpose and would soon provide another Rs4 billion. Last year, improvement work was completed on 17,222 water courses against the target of 15,050, he added.

When asked that there were reports of corruption and embezzlement in utilisation of funds allocated for lining of water courses, Mr Bosan said: “Overall, the project has been a success. but a few corruption cases were reported from some areas of Sindh which have been resolved”.

He said President Pervez Musharraf was being brief quarterly on the progress on the project and he had expressed satisfaction over the progress and quality of the work.

Mr Bosan said that all the provinces had surpassed their targets by a good margin.