LAHORE: A comprehensive province wide validation exercise conducted under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s flagship Apna Khet Apna Rozgar (AKAR) programme has identified 94,827 applicants as eligible for support, marking a major milestone in the Punjab government’s efforts to uplift landless farming households, reduce rural poverty and expand livelihood opportunities through equitable access to agricultural land.
The findings emerged from an extensive data validation and poverty targeting exercise carried out under the supervision of the Board of Revenue (BoR), Punjab, with technical implementation by the Punjab Land Records Authority (PLRA) and data support from the Punjab Social Protection Authority (PSPA). The exercise involved the scrutiny of 271,013 applications received from across Punjab’s 36 districts and 115 tehsils, including applicants from Cholistan and Canal Development Authority (CDA) areas.
Launched by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz as part of her government’s broader agenda for rural development and economic inclusion, the AKAR programme aims to provide state owned agricultural land to landless and marginalised farming families, enabling them to establish sustainable livelihoods, improve household incomes and contribute to agricultural productivity. The initiative is regarded as one of the most significant land-based poverty alleviation programmes undertaken by the Punjab government in recent years.
