LAHORE, Aug 12: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that solar home panels will be provided at a cost of Rs2 billion while sewing machines worth Rs1 billion will be distributed among skilled women.

The chief minister was presiding over a high-level meeting here on Sunday. Senator Pervaiz Rashid, MPA Ishrat Ashraf, Zaeem Husain Qadri, Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal, chairman Planning & Development, secretaries of industries, agriculture, education,transport and information departments, PITB chairman and other respective officials were present, says a handout.

Shahbaz said the `revolutionary’ programmes initiated by the PML-N at a cost of billions of rupees for the youth in Punjab were yielding positive results. He said programmes such as green tractors scheme, laptops, self-employment scheme, buses for colleges, solar panels and bio-gas pilot project had been initiated during the current year.

He said the projects for the youth were also being followed by other provinces.

The CM issued instructions to accelerate the pace of implementation of youth programmes. He said 20,000 tractors would be given under Green Tractor Scheme worth Rs 4 billion, and a subsidy of Rs0.2 million would be given on each tractor. He said the balloting process for the scheme would be computerised and transparent while assembly members and government servants are not eligible to apply.

The secretary (agriculture) informed the CM that Aug 31 had been fixed as the last date for submission of applications and more than 14,000 applications had been received so far.

The secretary said the process of distribution of laser levelers would be started next month. “The process of distribution of more than 0.1 million laptops among boy and girl students is also being started and students of evening classes will also begiven laptops.”

The chief minister directed the authorities concerned that the laptops should be of the latest model and the boy and girl students of seminaries and vocational institutions should also be included in the scheme.

He said bio-gas pilot project would also start operating in near future. He said 200 new buses were being provided to colleges in the province and the process would begin from October. Moreover, he said, 1,200 buses were being purchased for publictransport.

The chief minister directed that arrangements be made for operating special buses for the residents of poor and backward areas.

He said interest-free small loans to the tune of Rs2 billion were being distributed under Chief Minister’s Employment Schemeand the loan from Rs15,000 to Rs50,000 would be given for small business.

He welcomed distribution of loans through mosques, imambargahs and churches and said the ratio of repayment of loans is 99per cent.

The CM was informed that the target of provision of loans to 50,000 people persons had been achieved while 70,000 morewould be given loans by November.