QUETTA, Feb 11: The Balochistan government has decided to put off the recovery of loans, extended to growers by the provincial cooperative society, for at least six months in view of the four- year-long drought.

This was announced by the chief minister, Jam Mir Mohammad Yousuf, on Monday at a meeting of Nazims of various tehsils and union councils in Kalat.

Acting speaker of the Balochistan Assembly Aslam Bhootani was also present on the occasion.

The government, the Balochistan chief minister said, was also trying to defer or waive loans extended to the growers in Balochistan by the Agriculture Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP).

Mr Yousuf added that the provincial government was consulting Islamabad in this regard.

He assured the elected representatives that 1,000 tubewells, provided under Rs2 billion relief packages announced by the president and the prime minister, separately, would be utilized for the rehabilitation of growers affected by the drought in the province.

Highlighting the government’s efforts to resolve the problems faced by the people, the chief minister said that the people expected much from their elected representatives and the government, keeping within its limited resources, would try to keep up to their expectations.

Referring to the problems faced by the people of Kalat, the chief minister said that the government was negotiating with the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) for provision of natural gas to Kalat soon.

He said that so for as funds were concerned, the provincial government would make other arrangements if the federal government did not provide funds for the project.

Mr Yousuf said that though the prime minister had included 200 villages of Balochistan in the federal electrification programme, but the provincial government was making efforts to include more villages in the programme.

The prime minister, he said, had also restrained the Quetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO) from disconnecting the power connections of growers until they disposed of their onion crop, adding that QESCO was bound to implement the prime minister’s directives.