Sindh to develop towns under PRS

KARACHI: The government of Sindh has decided to develop towns under its Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), a statement said on Tuesday.

The provincial government has formulated a village development plan targeting larger settlements within a 30-kilometre radius of the Rural Growth Center (RGC) that is 'Chuhar Jamali' town. The development plan covers housing, walkways, drains, drinking water, and a kitchen garden.

“The consolidation of infrastructure and services around Chuhar Jamali town would result in poverty alleviation and improvement of living standard of the people,” said Dr Kaiser Bengali, senior economist, and strategic advisor at Sindh Union Council Community and Economic Strengthening Support (SUCCESS).

He said this in his presentation ‘Pilot Implementation in Chuhar Jamali’ at a seminar on Tuesday under the government of Sindh’s PRS, organized by the Sindh Directorate of Urban & Regional Policy in collaboration with the European Union's (EU) technical assistant team.

He said the chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had himself selected Chuhar Jamali for the pilot project and the provincial cabinet extends its full support for the project.

Ms Kathryn Ennis-Carter, team leader of EU SUCCESS technical assistance team, said the Sindh government has approved PC-1 of the pilot project and have also allocated funds for it. The schemes for facilities like school, water, and drainage have been approved and construction of a hospital is underway. She hoped that construction on these projects would start soon.

Faisal Ahmed Uqaili, planning secretary at Planning and Development Department, Sindh praised Dr Kaiser Bengali and his team for their efforts, saying that the project would end in December.

He said the provincial government would try its best to keep it up to improve the lives of fellow citizens in the poor districts and bring them all amenities of life that they deserve.

The PRS of Sindh government includes implementation of town-to-market infrastructure, improvement in quality of education, healthcare, water supply, and drainage. This would be supplemented by the construction of quality roads to facilitate access to the rural growth centres.