MULTAN
Dozens of protesters from neighbouring town of Muzaffargarh staged a sit in outside Multan Press Club under the leadership of MNA Jamshed Khan Dasti against coal-fired power plant project in their town and demanded the government to abandon the plan forthwith.
The demo was organised by People’s Action Committee and the protesters carried out non-stop sloganeering against the government. They were also holding placards and banners inscribed with their demands and slogans like; “ Save our children, our trees and our agriculture,”, “Give us back our blue sky” and “Go away power plant” “Stop feeding people with smog” etc.
Speaking on the occasion, MNA Jamshed Khan Dasti, Rana Mehboob Akhtar, Malik Zul-Naurain Bhutta, Amer Karamat, Mian Aamer Goraya and Muneer Ahmed Khan Chandia said that the plant would pollute the air which would hard hit their children, agriculture and mango orchards. They added that many thermal power stations were functioning in Muzaffargarh which generating over 6,000 MW electricity. Similarly, an oil refinery and industrial units are also functioning in the area and now the government was planning to establish two coal-fired power plants of 332 MW each in the area, they added.
They feared that the plants would affect the environment of Muzaffargarh and leave very negative impact on the residents. They demanded the government to drop the idea of installing coal-fired power plant otherwise the residents would fully resist the project.
PACE OF WORK: The Multan Metro Bus Authority has further increased the pace of work to accomplish the project on due date as the pro-qualification process to select firms for the purchase of escalators, elevators and lights has been initiated while three separate patches of land have also been located for setting up bus depot near Bahauddin Zakariya University.
Metro sources disclosed that 20 acre land would be acquired for the depot and section-4 would be issued after the land was finalised.
They added that the depot would be set up at the spot nearest to the route.
The construction of metro stations at different spots was underway while work on metro roundabout at Chowk Kumharanwala had also been launched after alteration in its design. The change in design has enabled the Metro authority to construct roundabout without acquiring any land. They revealed that over 400 pillars of elevated route had been constructed while work on six-kilometre on-ground route was at the stage of base and sub-base.

Modern tech must for quality crop

LODHRAN
Use of modern technology can increase production, helping the farmers earn handsome profits, Agriculture Additional Secretary and Chairman Agricultural Task Force Ahmad Ali Zafar said.
Addressing a meeting of the Agricultural Task Force, he stressed the need for adopting new methods and techniques to enhance quality agricultural production to cater the increasing demand of food.
He said that the weather-patterns has also affected the agriculture of the country so there is need to take measures to cope with the system by utilizing new techniques of cultivation.