KP govt to pass law for protection of agricultural land

PESHAWAR: The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is working on introducing legislation to prevent the construction of illegal housing societies on agricultural land.

According to KP Agriculture and Livestock Department officials, all housing societies would be required to obtain no-objection certificates (NOCs) from the government prior to launching their respective projects on farmlands.

They added that permission to construct on unproductive and barren lands would be preferred for housing societies in order to lessen the impact on agriculture lands.

“Out of 20.646 million acres land of Khyber Pakthunkhwa, around 4.627mn acres are under-cultivation while 16.18mn is uncultivable,” said the officials.

However, the vast swathes of unproductive land have a bigger purpose, with 14 projects under PC-1 (project cycle-1) including 11 Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) projects having already secured Rs44 billion in funds by the Government.

The projects will concentrate on the improvement of watercourses, protection of water resources in rainy areas, construction of small and medium dams, production of wheat, rice and oil besides fattening of calves of buffaloes, cows and strengthening of agriculture and livestock services.

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