LAHORE, Oct 25: Provincial Minister for Law and Local Government Rana Sanaullah Khan says the Punjab government has released Rs1 billion for the improvement of graveyards in the province.

He revealed this while presiding over a meeting held in connection with the improvement of graveyards in the province at Model Town here on Friday. He said that funds were provided as per ratio of population of each district.

According to a handout, the minister said that besides the construction of boundary walls of graveyards and janazgahs, the provision of potable water, water for ablution and proper light arrangements would also be made.

He said that divisional commissioners would be responsible for the overall improvement of graveyards whereas DCOs for the implementation and infrastructural work of the project.

Mr Sana said that monitoring committees would be constituted at the tehsil level for keeping an eye on the pace of work.

He directed local government secretary Jawad Rafique Malik to submit to him a progress report of the project fortnightly.

The secretary briefed the minister that under the scheme of improvement of graveyards, Rs169 million had been allocated for the Lahore division, Rs147 million for the Gujranwala division, Rs74 million for the Sargodha division, Rs130 million for the Faisalabad division, Rs94 million for the DG Khan division, Rs88 million for the Rawalpindi division, Rs71 million for the Sahiwal division, Rs115 million for the Multan division and Rs107 million for the Bahawalpur division.

The law minister said that 571 schemes had been approved in all districts of the province under the project of improvement of graveyards.

He said the retrieval of graveyard land from ‘qabza mafia’ was also part of the project.

Provincial ministers Tanvir Aslam Malik, Abdul Waheed Chaudhry, MPAs Khwaja Imran Nazir, Mehmood Qadir, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, press secretary to Chief Minister Shoaib Bin Aziz and Secretary Information Momin Agha were also present.