GUJRAT: Thirty (30) new high quality water filtration plants costing Rs10 million each will be installed in 15 villages of the district.

The selection of installation sites is likely to be completed within a week under the chief minister’s clean drinking water programme for rural areas.

According to District Coordination Officer Asif Bilal Lodhi, the plants will be installed in a village having minimum population of 6,000 souls. Each of the selected village will be given two filtration plants.

He said the selection of the sites would be made in the light of the chemical examination reports of the water samples collected from the villages in 2012 and the Punjab government would monitor the entire process.

He said the concerned contractors would be responsible for the maintenance of the plants for five years after which the control of the water plants would be handed over to the local community.

He said the plants would be operated through solar energy in the day timings and through electricity at night and all the plants would be linked with the central control room that could ascertain whether the plants were operational or not.

A good number of water filtration plants had earlier been installed in the cities of Gujrat, Jalalpur Jattan, Kunjah, Lalamusa, Kharian and their adjoining rural localities.

Most of these plants now suffer from lack of maintenance by the tehsil municipal administrations concerned.

SEMINAR: A seminar on ‘Issues of Education in Pakistan’ was held at Hafiz Hayat Campus of the University of Gujrat (UoG) on Wednesday to discuss problems in Pakistan’s education sector.

Norwegian Ambassador to Pakistan Ms Cecilie Landsverk was the chief guest, while MNA and Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Chaudhry Jafar Iqbal was the guest of honour. UoG Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Nizamuddin presided over the seminar.

Ms Landsverk said Pakistan was a developing country but its masses were full of hope and courage with a passion for progress and development of the nation.

The young generation had the capability to change the fate of the country.

The progress of a nation depended upon strong and reliable infrastructure, she said.

“It is essential to study the methodology of other nations for progress. Institutional coordination and cooperation between Norway and Pakistan can be fruitful for achieving this purpose,” she added.

“Norway is ready to provide cooperation to Pakistan in many fields such as education and hydro power projects.

I appreciate the intellectual atmosphere of UoG. Education has most important role in the progress and welfare of a nation,” the envoy said

Prof Nizamuddin said education was the basic element of progress among successful nations and state policies in Norway had played their role well in the development of modern Norway.

“We are also in the need of improving our state policies for running the educational system on modern lines.

Pakistan is the sixth most populated country and a large part of our population consists of young people. We can make our future promising by promoting higher and vocational education among younger generation.

My appeal is to build institutions not projects.

Decentralisation of power and developing of local governments is the best solution for progress,” the VC said.

Chaudhry Jafar said Norway was a welfare state and it was the foremost duty of the state to give priority to interests and welfare of masses.

Interaction among societies provided an opportunity to learn. A large number of Pakistanis lived in Norway and the community played an essential role in the progress of that country, he added.