LAHORE: Taseer readies 100-point report on Kalabagh Dam benefits

Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer with the assistance of renowned water experts has prepared a 100-point report, which highlights benefits of Kalabagh Dam (KBD) construction.
Talking to Nawa-i-Waqt Sunday, Salmaan said the project had been made a political issue.
“If the benefits of KBD reach the people of all the four provinces, I am certain that they will definitely force their provincial governments to decide in favour of the dam,” he maintained, adding that only the PPP could ensure construction of the KBD. The governor also called upon the PML-N and other parties to make efforts to pave the way for the much-delayed project.
He said both internal and external forces were against the construction of KBD. Salmaan regretted that the internal hands had failed to contemplate its benefits.
“There would have been no inflation, unemployment and energy crisis, had the KBD been constructed 20 years back,” he remarked.
He believed that the KBD was the guarantee for a prosperous and developed Pakistan.
The 100-point report says the KBD will help resolve energy and water crisis, better the agriculture and eliminate unemployment and poverty, besides providing a lot of other benefits. On the basis of the report, a countrywide drive to address the reservations of the stakeholders in all the four provinces will soon be launched.
In the first phase, the drive will be started from the platform of chambers of commerce and industry throughout the country.
It may be mentioned that industrialists and investors in a meeting with the governor the other day while welcoming the move apprised him that industries could not be run while no investment was possible if the energy crisis continued to prevail.

 The Nation Report, 18-Oct-10