Governor lays foundation of first project under Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority

FAISALABAD: Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar laid the foundation stone of the Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority’s first project at a cost of Rs 161 million at Chak Jhumra on Monday.

Addressing the ceremony, the governor said that more than 57,000 people of 16 villages would have access to safe drinking water daily. He said: “If I find out that any person of the Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority has taken or given commission, he will be punished. We will protect the tax money of the people. Those who fill their pockets with the tax money of the public are criminals.”

Provincial Minister Ajmal Cheema, Khayal Ahmad Castro, MNA Chaudhry Zahid Nazir, Members of National and Provincial Assemblies, Chief Executive, Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority Zahid Aziz, Chairman Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority Dr Shakeel and others were also present.

The governor said that he was thankful to Prime Minister Imran Khan for giving him the responsibility of provision of potable water to the people of the Punjab. He also thanked Chief Minister Sardar Usman Bazdar, Minister for Housing Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed, Minister for Law Raja Muhammad Basharat, Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and all members of the Punjab Assembly who played an important role in getting the legislation passed.

The governor said: “You all know that I always speak the truth without any fear and I will continue to do so in the future. There is no doubt that if some people in the bureaucracy of the Punjab had not halted the procedures, the project that I am inaugurating today would have started a year and a half ago but we want to forget the past and move on now.

If I am responsible for the provision of clean drinking water to the people of the Punjab, then it is my responsibility to tell the people about whatever hinders it.” He said that billions of rupees were spent on providing clean drinking water to the people during the past regimes, but not a single filtration plant was functional today.

He said that every penny of the people would be protected in the Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority and all the information about every project would be available on our website to ensurecomplete transparency. He said that we would make the Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority such an organisation that no successive government would be able to end it even if it wanted to. He said that we would create such networks that would ensure uninterrupted implementation of projects. Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar further said that filtration plants would not only be installed in the constituencies won by the people of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf but also in the constituencies where the opposition parties had won.