South Punjab poverty alleviation project signed

LAHORE : The Punjab government and its development partner National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) have jointly agreed for implementation of interventions that would be started soon in other districts of South Punjab.

An agreement was signed between the Punjab government Planning and Development and National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) here on Monday at P&D Complex. Planning and Development Board Chairman Habib-ur-Rehman Gillani chaired the signing ceremony while on the behalf of P&D Punjab Project Director Southern Punjab Poverty Alleviation Project (SPPAP) Muhammad Saghir, and Chief Executive Officer Rashid Bajwa from NRSP signed the MOU.

Speaking on the occasion, Planning and Development Chairman Habib-ur-Rehman Gillani said that Southern Punjab and less developed areas of the province were 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 said Southern Punjab Secretariat would start working from the next fiscal year. People living in South Punjab will have not to go to Lahore to get redressed their grievances.

Focusing on Southern Punjab Poverty Alleviation Project (SPPAP), he reiterated that the government had launched the Southern Punjab Poverty Alleviation Project at the total cost of Rs4.7 billion with the financial assistance of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) during 2011-12 in four districts of South Punjab, including Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur. The project was aimed to increase income of 80,000 poor households by enhancing the employment potential of the people and increasing agriculture productivity and production. The project achieved all the targets effectively until the completion of time frame March 2018. Based on its performance, it was declared the best project in Pakistan by IFAD in 2015-16, he disclosed.

Addressing the participants, Habib Gillani disclosed that IFAD provided additional financing of US$25 million for extension in period of the project for another three years up to 31st March, 2021 and two new districts Rahimyar Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan were included to the original project districts while four districts, including Layyah, Bhakkar, Mianwali & Khushab have now been selected for soft interventions. The outreach of the project increased from 80,000 to 1131,000 the poorest of poor households with special focus on women and youths. To include the additional financing, revised PC-I at the total cost of Rs7.56 billion was approved from ECNEC to actual implementation of the interventions in the respective districts.