PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: The Balochistan government has approved various development schemes across the province to eliminate backwardness and improve the living standards in the remote areas.



Balochistan Finance Minister Zahoor Buledi said provincial finance department had authorised Rs44.9 billion for carrying out 2,018 ongoing and new development projects in the province during the first half of the financial year 2019-20.



Talking to APP, he said the government had approved 88 percent schemes out of total 2,449 schemes in Balochistan. He said that the government was striving hard to solve basic issues of people through development, adding that the approved uplift schemes were contained on road and infrastructure rehabilitation, education, health, irrigation, agriculture and drinking water facilities.



He said the government had allocated Rs70.296 billion for 2,448 total schemes while Rs30.674 billion had been earmarked in the current fiscal year for 665 ongoing development plans in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2019-20.



The provincial government had approved some 92 percent of 1,783 new schemes on radical basis to ensure the development work in the province, he added.



“It is the first time in the history of Balochistan that more than 1,524 new schemes had been approved in such a short span of time which shows government’s seriousness towards development of the province," he noted.



Published in The Express Tribune, December 29th, 2019.