The Senate was informed on Wednesday that two plans were underway to overcome shortage of water in the federal capital. Leader of the House Jahangir Badr said during the question hour that an MoU had been signed with China under which a hundred million gallons of water was to be provided to Islamabad from Tarbela Dam. He said that water supply under this arrangement would be sufficient for a period of thirty to forty years. He said that CDA, in cooperation with the Punjab government, also intended to build a dam near the federal capital. This reservoir would have the capacity to store fifteen million gallons of water, of which half would be provided to Rawalpindi and the other half to Islamabad. He said that CDA had also prepared a project for replacement of outdated rusty water supply pipelines in the city. Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani said that 135 employees from different departments had been deputed at FBR for the last four years. The House was informed that over Rs 144 bn had been provided to public sector universities from 2008 to 2012. Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination said that Higher Education Commission had allocated funds to universities on need and performance basis through a funding formula approved by the Commission. Jahangir said that a total of 3,568 scholarships had been provided to students for education abroad during the last five years. He said that scholarships had been awarded on merit before the 18th amendment but now a quota system had been introduced to give better chances to students from deprived areas. He said that students of FATA and Balochistan could avail scholarships both on merit and quota systems.
