Rs378.956m worth project Jhang Hospital

JHANG: The Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department on Wednesday accorded administrative approval of the scheme titled ‘Completion of Ghulam Nabi Block at DHQ Hospital Jhang’ at a cost of Rs378.956 million here.

According to a notification issued here, Rs.259.092 million for capital components and Rs119.864 million would be utilised for revenue components of the project. Sources revealed that the project of the DHQ Hospital was approved and inaugurated by the then Punjab Chief Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi.

Later, the project was halted due to unavailability of the required funds, they added. The former Punjab government had signed a MoU with the Iran’s government to complete the double storey DHQ Hospital’s extension project as a joint venture but it was still incomplete, the sources said.

Now, the P&SHC Department Development Committee had decided to complete the project to avoid wastage of already utilised huge public funds, they maintained.

After the approval of the Punjab Planning and Development Department, the P&SHC Department’s secretary had released more funds to complete the ongoing project of the DHQ Hospital, the sources added.

Govt committed to safeguard farmers' interests: Tarar: Senior Member Punjab Board of Revenue (BOR) Babar Tarar Wednesday said the government is taking all possible steps to protect the interests of farmers and growers.

During his visit to locusts-affected areas of tehsil Athara Hazari, Babar Tarar said Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Chief Secretary Jawwad Rafique Malik are personally monitoring relief activities in the locusts-hit areas and they have directed the officials concerned to utilise all available resources to protect crops from locusts.

Officials of district administration, Pak Army, agriculture, revenue, and other departments concerned were also present on the occasion.

He was briefed that the agriculture and other allied departments experts are available in the locusts-hit areas round-the-clock.

The officials said spray on 23,878 acres of agriculture land had been completed to protect the grams and other crops. They said local farmers and growers are being provided required machinery and expertise to minimize their loss of crops and to get rid of the locusts outbreak.

Tarar directed agriculture experts to remain in the affected areas until the completion of the operation against locusts.

Tarar said the authorities accord much respect to farmers and their issues would be resolved on a priority.