MULTAN: District Coordination Officer Zahid Saleem Gondal said an application for provision of six companies of Rangers for by-election in PP-196 has been dispatched to the interior ministry on the request of district police.

He was addressing a meeting of the officials of Election Commission and other departments of district government here on Wednesday.

He said that on the direction of the ECP arrangements of security, furniture, drinking water and shady places were being finalised at 133 polling stations established for the by-election to be held on May 21.

He said the lists of the employees of all government educational institutions had been provided for the by-poll duty and the ECP would be recommended for sternaction against those not performing their assigned duties on the polling day.

The DCO said the district government was also considering installation of CCTV cameras at all polling stations while there would be no loadshedding on polling day and during the training of staff at the relevant feeders.

`To avert any untoward incident, a special control room would be established in the DCO office to monitor the election and other activities,` he added.

JI: Jamaat-i-Islami has announced that it will support the PML-N candidate in PP-196 by-elections.

The announcement was made by the JI district Emir Asif Mehmood Akhwani during a press conference here on Wednesday.

`After consulting the (JI) local leader-ship and workers, we have decided to support PML-N candidate Rana Mehmoodul Hassan in PP-196,` he said.

He said the JI workers would support the PML-N candidate unconditionally.

The PML-N candidate, Mr Hassan, thanlced the JI leadership and worl(ers for their support and said his position had further strengthened after the announcement.

Land acquisition The DCO said that Rs427 million have been received for the land acquisition for Old Shujabad Road and cheques among the land owners would be distributed within three days.

He was presiding over a meeting a of the National Highway Authority and dis-trict government departments officials here on Wednesday. The DCO said the lists of the land owners had been finalised for transparent distribution of money among them.

`Payments to the mosques and shrines where land had been acquired for the road widening will be made on a priority basis, he said.

He said the NHA would complete the road widening work during the ongoing financial year. Carpeting of the both sides of the road would also be started soon, he added. He directed the Water and Sanitation Authority (Wasa) to install a modern drainage system on the both sides of the road by making functional the sewerage lines on emergency basis. Staff Correspondent