PESHAWAR, July 31: Senior provincial minister Sirajul Haq has said that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government in taking steps to ensure welfare of forest-owners besides promotion of forests and environmental protection.

Speaking at a meeting of the forests department and the Forest Development Corporation, he directed the authorities to make the procedure of payment of royalty to the owners easy.

He said people of Hazara, Swat, Dir and Kohistan mainly depended on forests and ban on timber cutting and delay in payment of royalty caused financial problems for them.

The minister said that like other parts of the country the forest-owners of Swat, Dir and Kohistan deserved 80 per cent increase in royalty.

The meeting decided to entrust the timber cutting task to joint forests management committees.

It was decided that the district forest officers would distribute royalty directly after getting the amount from the timber market.

The minister ordered the constitution of a committee to formulate procedure for giving loans to forest-owners.

The Bank of Khyber managing director said the bank had huge investment amount but guarantee for returning the loans was a prerequisite.-PPI