ROJHAN JAMALI, June 1: A new law enforcement force — Balochistan constabulary — will be set up soon to ensure peace and law and order in the province while work on the Kirthar drainage canal will begin in the next financial year.
He said this while speaking at separate inaugural ceremonies of the Highway Police and the 66-KV grid station and transmission line here on Sunday.
Initially, Prime Minister Jamali said, the new force would would work along with other concerned law enforcement agencies and would initially comprise 5,000 men recruited from Balochistan.
The prime minister said that Rs200 million had been sanctioned for the improvement of the police force in Balochistan, adding that the first instalment of Rs50 million had already been released.
Referring to the Highway police, Mr Jamali said that it would initially operate with 15 vehicles.
Meanwhile speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the 66-KV Usta Mohammad- Rojhan Jamali transmission line, the prime minister said that the federal government would provide funds to implement the Kirthat canal project.
He said that in addition to the Kirthar canal, work on the right and left outfall drainage canals would begin soon to help control the salinity and waterlogging problems.
Directing the authorities concerned, Mr Jamali said that they should ensure smooth supply of irrigation water during the upcoming Kharif season.
The prime minister also urged the people to make timely payments against their gas and electricity bills, saying that efforts were being made to provide natural gas and electricity to the remote areas of Balochistan.
The prime minister urged the authorities to utilize development funds given by the federal government for rural electrification by June 30 so that funds allocated in this regard would not lapse.
He said that efforts were being made to provide gas supply to adjoining areas of Usta Mohammad, in Balochistan and Jacobabad and Shahdadkot in Sindh.
The prime minister said that grid stations would also be set up at Gandaha, Manjoshori, Chhatar and Sunari for smooth supply of electricity to these areas.
Mr Jamali said that the next year’s Public Sector Development Programme amounting to Rs160 billion was 31 per cent higher than the Rs120 billion PSDP for the previous year.
Urging the people to pay their gas and electricity bills punctually, the prime minister said that it would enable the government to provide them with better facilities in this regard.
Earlier, Wapda chairman Lt Gen (Retd) Zulfiqar Ali Khan said that seven transmission lines, with a total length of 350 kilometres, had been installed in Balochistan during the past three years.
He said that six new grid stations had been constructed while 23 older ones had been expanded to improve the supply of electricity in the province at a cost of Rs2 billion.
The Wapda chairman said that the 220-KV Dadu-Khuzdar transmission line is being completed at a cost of Rs3.8 billion in southern Balochistan, adding that the project would be completed in three years’ time.
He said that the 30-kilometre-long 66-KV Usta Mohammad-Rojhan Jamali transmission line project had been completed in a record period of two months at a cost of Rs67 million.
Under an agreement, he said, Iran has begun supplying electricity to the border town of Taftan and other towns of Mekran would be supplied electricity from Iran by September this year.
Governor Balochistan Lt Gen (Retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Federal Minister for Petroleum Naurez Shakoor and others were also present on the occasion.