Lahore           -         Punjab Chief Secretary Major (retired) Azam Suleman Khan on Monday said that the Livestock and Dairy Development Department should encourage private sector for enhancement of milk and meat production in the province. He was talking to a delegation of private investors during a meeting on livestock sector at Civil Secretariat here on Monday. Detailed deliberations were made on a proposal by the delegates to establish a disease-free zone in Kasur and set up check-posts at all entry and exit points of the city. The meeting was briefed that the proposed zone would help save animals from diseases through timely vaccination, resulting in ample availability of healthy meat and milk for food. The delegates also presented a proposal of setting up check posts to scan animals for diseases at entry and exit points of district Kasur. The chief secretary asked the delegation to prepare a workable model of the project so that it could be finalised with local administration in next meeting. He also inquired about tagging of animals and steps to save them from diseases. The Livestock director general briefed the chief secretary that foot and mouth disease in Cholistan had been controlled as six doses of vaccine had been administered to animals in the area at a cost of Rs 2.5 billion. He said that process of tagging animals had been completed and according to data, there were about 89 million animals in the province.