TAXILA: Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha has said efforts are underway to establish a modern gymkhana in Attock to provide better recreational facilities to natives of the area.

He was talking to journalists after attending a briefing regarding the project on Friday. The commissioner was accompanied by Additional Commissioner Revenue Kanza Murtaza, Additional Commissioner Ch Abdul Majid, Deputy Commissioner Rao Atif Raza and other administrative officers.

Mr Chattha said the facility would be established on 47 kanals of land while indoor and outdoor sports facilities including badminton, squash, tennis as well and riding will be provided to people.

He said the facility would include a library and swimming pool besides a joy land for kids, adding that the gymkhana would not only provide better recreational facilities to government officials and their families but also help in the promotion of local culture and social norms.

Mr Chattha said earlier last year, serving as commissioner of Dera Ghazi Khan, he revived the over-a-century old local officers’ club asGymkhana Club while the same projects were successfully initiated in other districts especially Faisalabad, Sargodha and Gujrat.

Earlier, presiding over a meeting regarding development schemes, he was informed that work on 21 schemes is underway across the district at a cost of Rs27,527.9 million in the district.

He was informed that among them, a sum of Rs10,233.9 million was being spent on 26 schemes of highways, Rs2,487.3 million on 22 schemes of buildings, Rs1,426.3 million on seven public health schemes and Rs135 million on two local government schemes.

He said that effective steps should be taken to complete all development projects on time and quality of work should be ensured. He was of the view that senior officers should take ownership of work on development projects and supervise them, he added.

He instructed officers to take the local community of the place where there was a public project into confidence and work in cooperation with them, adding that the government would not let the cost go beyond the fixed limit by controlling expenditures. On this occasion, he said words of encouragement to the best performing officers especially Deputy Commissioner Rao Atif Raza and Deputy Director (Information) Shahzad Niaz Khokhar.

Later, the commissioner attended the Nambardar (village elders) Convention at District Council Hall. He said that nambardars occupy an important position in the revenue department and are highly respected.

The doors of the commissioner’s office are always open for them, he said, adding that nambardars submitted their demands to commissioner Rawalpindi on which they were assured that their demands would be met within the next one month.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2023