Farmers asked to avoid burning of crop residual

LAHORE (APP): Agriculture Department spokesman Monday advised farmers not to burn crop residual as its increase environmental pollution and thus causing dense smog. "Smog causes to effect human health and people have to suffer in case of smog effects," he added. In a statement, the spokesman disclosed it was recommended that air pollution must not exceed 80 microgram per cubic meter as per standard measure but if same exceeded to 200 microgram per cubic meter in multiple areas then this condition was known to be as Smog. "Dense smog has adverse effect for not only human beings but also for the crops," the spokesman said. "Due to smog, photosynthesis process in leaves of crops is affected and plants cannot make their necessary food," he said and added that plants, under the effect of smoggy clouds, can not prepare necessary hormones for its growth and per acre yield of crops may effect due to this situation." In order to lessen the effects of smog, farmers should avoid burning of crop residual e.g rice stubble & cotton sticks burning etc., he said.
"Instead of burning farmers should mix the crop residual into the soil through deep plough, he advised and added that in case of smog, farmers should irrigate their crops, gardens and vegetable to a light extent.
The spokesman disclosed that this year Agriculture Department would monitor & report burning of crop residual incidents and those who would be involved in this practice will found themselves in hot water.

Punjab industries and trade minister meets investors

LAHORE (APP): Provincial Minister for Industries, Trade and Investment Mian Aslam Iqbal on Monday stressed the need for benefiting from vast opportunities of investment in various sectors in Punjab. Talking to investors' delegation at his office, the minister said that Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) would be fully activated for promotion of investment in province and steps were being taken to launch one-window operation to provide facilities to the investors. The Minister said the target of self-reliance could be achieved by enhancing investment. He vowed to transform Punjab into economic and trade hub by facilitating the local and foreign investors. He said that past rulers had weaken the country's economy through their wrong economic policies, adding that PTI government would eliminate poverty. Under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, he said, the journey of country's development had been started and masses would soon benefit from the change.
He said, a comprehensive industrial policy was being finalized with the consultation of all stakeholders to strengthen the industry as well as create new employment opportunities.

Pakistan Development Programme launched

LAHORE (Staff Reporter): The AijazQureshi.Com has announced the launch of the Pakistan Development Programme - PDP a mass training programme that aims to train 500,000 Pakistanis in web development for free. Students, irrespective of their prior experience or background, will be trained to build fully responsive e-commerce websites in this immersive, hands-on training programme, enabling them to launch their career in web development. The Pakistan Development Programme - PDP will be inclusive and open to everyone, irrespective of gender, religion or age. The training program will provide a crash course in web development using agile methodology. Students will learn the basics of computing and e-commerce and then get hands-on with web development software and languages (Word Press, My SQL, HTML, PHP, CSS3) to build complex, engaging and user friendly websites. They will also learn about industry best practices and learn from other experts in their field.
The entire program will equip participants to build fully functional websites from scratch in just a few hours.
Pakistan Development Programme - PDP, the brainchild of Aijaz Qureshi, has two significant purposes: (1) to impart participants with a valuable skill so they can start building websites for a living; (2) to invest in Pakistan's knowledge economy and contribute to improving the image of Pakistan globally.

KPOGCL confident to tap O&G potential under PM's vision

ISLAMABAD (APP): Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Company Limited (KPOGCL) Monday expressed confidence to exploit the untapped reserves of oil and gas in potential areas of the province under Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision to overcome the prevailing energy crisis in the country. "KP holds promise for new exciting discoveries, particularly in Kohat Basin which has become main area of focus after successful discoveries by OGDCL and MOL Pakistan. Most of the areas of KP are still lying explored and therefore, there is potential of massive hydrocarbon prospects in the province," official sources told APP. Currently, they said, oil and gas exploration activities were being carried out in 10 blocks of the province, adding that the KPOGCL was extending them maximum facilities including logistics, security, seismic surveys and geographical mapping under the one-window service. The sources said the KPOGCL were producing around 65,000 barrels (bbl) oil, 450 mmcf gas and 500 ton liquified petroleum gas (LPG) on daily basis.
They said the company recently got a license to carry out exploration activities at Lakki block which would also help initiating development activities in oil and gas producing districts.
The sources said the KPOGCL and a Russian consortium of investors had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a refinery, having a capacity to purify 200,000 bbl oil per day in the province.