BAHAWALPUR   -  A meeting of the District Coordination Committee under the Punjab Human Capital Investment Project was held in the committee room of the DC office, presided over by Additional Deputy Commissioner Finance and Planning Farooq Qamar.

The meeting was briefed on the progress of the Aagosh, Buniyad, and Khud Mukhtar programmes. Under these initiatives, the Government of Punjab is successfully implementing programmes for better health, economic prosperity, and quality early childhood education in 12 selected districts of southern Punjab.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Director Development Faisal Shahzad, District Focal Person Punjab Human Capital Investment Project Timur Shabaz, Deputy Education Officer (Women) Kousar Arfan, Education Planning Officer Malik Muhammad Tariq, and other officials from relevant departments.

The Additional Deputy Commissioner instructed the officers of the relevant departments to take effective steps to provide better health facilities to women throughout the district under the Aagosh programme of the Punjab Human Capital Investment Project and ensure proper registration of women at health centres so that their conditional payments under the Aagosh programme can be made timely and easily.

Deputy Director Development Faisal Shahzad said that the development schemes of the health centers included in the project should be completed promptly to ensure that the public has access to quality facilities at these health centres.

Earlier, Taimur Shahbaz, the District Focal Person for the Punjab Human Capital Investment Project, while briefing on the Aagosh programme of the Punjab Social Protection Authority, informed the meeting that pregnant and lactating mothers would be registered under the Aagosh programme at the health centres. Registration cards for the visits to be made under this programme have also been provided so that women visiting the health centers can be registered and maintained as a record.

He informed the meeting that registered pregnant and lactating mothers across the district are receiving their payments from selected cash-out agents.

He further informed the meeting that under the Buniyad programme, children are being provided with Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) facilities in government schools. In the first phase, 400 schools were established for early childhood education in the district and now 669 more schools have been added to the programme. Standard furniture, reading corners, and libraries have been established for young children in 400 schools. Similarly, under the Khud Mukhtar program, 5,570 households have received productive assets.