LAHORE (The Thursday Times) — Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has approved Rs23.85 billion for the first phase of a rural development programme that aims to give every village in the province paved streets and a proper sewerage system.
Under the Khushhal Dehat Programme, development work will be carried out in 475 villages in the first phase, the provincial government said on Saturday. The chief minister also gave in-principle approval for Rs50 million to be spent on each village.
She directed officials to release the first instalment of the grants this month so that work can begin without delay, and asked for a development plan covering another 2,000 villages in a second phase.
Village committees to run the work
Projects will be carried out through Khushhal Dehat Committees, each headed by the area’s additional deputy commissioner for social services. Each committee will have five government members and four private members, along with the local union council chairman and a sub-engineer.
The arrangement is meant to bring local representatives into choosing which works come first and into keeping watch over construction.
“Whether a village or a city, development in Punjab will now be uniform,” Maryam Nawaz said. She said paved streets and an organised sewerage system in every village were a commitment of her government, and that every area of the province had a right to development and to solutions for its problems.
“Every street paved”
The programme runs under the slogan “Har gali pakki, har gaon mein sewerage ka baqaida nizam”, or every street paved and a proper sewerage system in every village.
Most of Punjab’s people still live in rural areas, according to the 2023 census, and many villages rely on open drains and unpaved lanes that turn to mud in the monsoon.
The province already runs the Suthra Punjab sanitation programme, whose model has drawn interest abroad.
