RAWALPINDI, July 23: The government has allocated Rs12 billion for provision of gas to urban and rural areas without this amenity, the petroleum minister, Nauraiz Shakoor, said.

Speaking at a public gathering, he said it had been decided that all those villages and urban settlements falling within five kms from the main supply line would be provided gas from this allocation.

In his speech, provincial minister for law and local bodies Raja Basharat said the Punjab government was introducing concrete policies for economic development, industrial growth and improved agricultural production.

On behalf of the Punjab government, he announced a grant of Rs20 million for construction of Boys Degree College Chakbeli Khan and promised that the girls higher secondary school would be upgraded to the status of degree college this year.

The minister said another Rs4 million would be spent on a water supply scheme for Chakbeli Khan and repair of the sub- tehsil building. Meanwhile, at a separate meeting in Mankiala Union Council, District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani said all union councils were being treated equally with regards to development projects.

He said the guiding principle for the district government, while allocating funds for development projects, was the betterment of common man irrespective of any party or other affiliation.

The Nazim said during his three years in office, he had tried to ensure that no person, who approached the district government remained unattended or some poor person was maltreated by the bureaucracy just because of the reason that he had no connections.

District Naib Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas, on this occasion, said it went to the credit of the district government that it had provided electricity to those areas that had been without it for the past 57 years.

He said the district government had taken special measures to improve health and education sectors. Better network of roads, he said, now existed in the district.