FAISALABAD, Feb 9: The Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) president has demanded the government to announce a relief package for the textile sector because loadshedding has landed entrepreneurs in an outlandish situation and they are suffering a huge financial losses.

At a press conference flanked by Faisalabad Electricity Supply Company (Fesco) Chief Executive Saeed Akhtar here on Monday, Hamid Javeed said it was commendable that the government had arrested the unrestrained power outages. However, the high rate of bank markups was still a threat to the industry, and the government must reduce it besides ensuring smooth supply of gas and electricity.

He said the power crisis had created plethora of problems for industrialists, particularly for hundreds of thousands of labourers and made it difficult for them to make both ends meet. The problem paralysed the textile sector, and export products registered a considerable decline causing a billions of rupees loss to industrialists and the government as well, he said.

He demanded the prime minister should announce a relief package for the crisis-stricken textile sector.

The Fesco chief said the company had been trying to improve the situation, and different power generation plants having a capacity of 150 to

200 megawatts were being installed at different places in Faisalabad.

He claimed the industry had been facing only a two-hour scheduled power suspension and the problem would be permanently solved after the installation of these plants.

UPLIFT SCHEMES: The district development committee approved 294 different schemes worth Rs378 million on Monday.

The committee met with DCO Saeed Iqbal at his office, finalised the projects after reviewing different schemes to be initiated for the welfare of the masses. Under the Punjab Development Programme, a sum of Rs261 million will be spent on 209 diverse projects.

Similarly, as many as 83 schemes of education and health sectors will be completed at a cost of Rs161 million.

The DCO asked the officials of different departments to complete the projects well in time.