LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Cooperatives Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channer has said there was an urgent need to develop landfill sites in rural areas of the province for management of solid waste in a proper way. The minister expressed these views while speaking at a meeting on Saturday. He said the provincial government has devised Punjab Clean Cities Roadmap Programme (PCCRP) in this regard. An amount of Rs15 billion had been allocated in the budget to clean rural areas under the PCCRP, he added. “Cleanliness is part of faith as it is called ‘Nisf Eman’ (half of the faith). The government wants to take people on board to get the task done,” he said. “One of the major issues we are facing is to find out dumping sites for solid waste,” he said. The public and local representatives must come forward in this regard and identify the places which could be used as landfill sites. The minister said the PCCRP, which was being implemented in Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Rawalpindi and Sialkot through solid waste management companies, had improved the situation of sanitation in cities. However, a lot more had to be done in this regard. The minister said the government had expanded the solid waste management programme to rural areas.