Punjab Government and its development partner National Rural Support Program (NRSP) have jointly agreed that implementation of interventions should be started soon in other districts of Southern Punjab.
In this connection, the Planning & Development Punjab hosted an agreement signing ceremony at P&D Complex, Lahore. Chairman Planning & Development Board Habib-ur-Rehman Gillani chaired the signing ceremony while on the behalf of P&D Punjab Project Director SPPAP Muhammad Saghir and Chief Executive Officer Rashid Bajwa from NRSP signed the MOU. Secretary P&D Iftikhar Ali Sahoo, Chief Executive Officer National Rural Support Program (NRSP) Rashid Bajwa, Member Education P&D Khalid Sultan, Project Director Southern Punjab Poverty Alleviation Project Muhammad Saghir, Manager Education Institute of Rural Management Iram Anees and other relevant officers also attended the ceremony.
Punjab Chairman P&D Habib-ur-Rehman Gillani, chairing the ceremony, stated that Southern Punjab and less developed areas of the province have been given top priority by the present government. The government has focused on the development of the backward areas while practical steps have also been taken for the development of the Southern Punjab. He also said Southern Punjab Secretariat will start working from the next fiscal year. People living in South Punjab will not have to go to Lahore for redressal of their grievances.
Focusing on Southern Punjab Poverty Alleviation Project (SPPAP), he reiterated that government had launched the Southern Punjab Poverty Alleviation Project at the total cost of PKR. 4,657.957 Million with the financial assistance of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) during 2011-12 in four districts of South Punjab Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur. The project objective was to increase incomes of 80,000 poor households by enhancing the employment potential of the people and increasing agriculture productivity and production. Project also achieved all the targets effectively till the completion of time frame March 2018. Based on its performance, the project was declared the best project in Pakistan by IFAD in 2015-16, he disclosed.
Addressing the participants, Chairman Habib Gillani told that IFAD has provided additional financing of US$ 25 Million for extension in gestation period of the said project for another three years up to 31st March 2021 and two new districts Rahim Yar Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan were included to the original project districts while four districts named as Layyah, Bhakkar, Mianwali and Khushab have now been selected for soft interventions. The outreach of the project has also increased from 80,000 to 1131,000, the poorest of poor households with special focus on women and youth. To include the additional financing, revised PC-I at the total cost of PKR. 7565.780 Million was approved from ECNEC to actual implement the interventions in the respective districts.