Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar Sunday said over 4,000 citizens visited the Governor House Lahore on the first day of its opening for general public. The people were the real owner of such buildings and the initiative taken on the instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan was aimed at telling the general public of lavish lifestyle of the past rulers who resided there, he said talking to media persons here at the Governor House.
Chaudhry Sarwar said the Governor House situated at Kashmir Point in Murree would also be opened for the public on next Sunday. He said Member of the National Assembly Sadaqat Abbasi had highlighted the problems being faced by the people of Murree. An effective policy would be devised to resolve the issues, including the construction of Topa-Kohala Road, bulk water supply, provision of Sui-gas, establishment of a university campus and others related to education and health sectors, he added.
Highlighting the severity of water issue, the governor said over 1.1 million people lost their lives in Punjab every year by consuming unhygienic drinking water. A lot of children could not attend schools due to suffering from waterborne diseases, he added. He said his Sarwar Foundation had installed some 100 filtration plants in the province under the 'Clean water, save life' campaign, which were benefiting millions of people.
He said the government had assigned him the responsibility of provision of clean drinking water to the people of Punjab. It was not an easy task as Rs 1,600 billion was required for setting up filtration plants in around 26,000 villages in Punjab while the total development budget of the province was Rs 400 billion, he added. The governor said he would try his best to meet the challenge and seek help from the European Union (EU), UNICEF and philanthropists in the country if required.