Layyah District

Infobox Pakistan district
district = Layyah District
area = 6291
population = 1520951
pop_year = 2005
density = 178
caption = Location of Layyah District (highlighted in red) within Punjab.
region = Punjab
established =
nazim = Iftikhar Babar Khitran [ [http://www.dawn.com/2008/02/25/nat14.htm Local giants succumb to voters� wrath] ]
naib_nazim =
seats =
tehsils =
languages =Saraiki, Punjabi and Urdu
website =

---

Layyah District ( _ur. لیہ) is a district in the Punjab, Pakistan. It is located in the southern part of the province. The capital is Layyah.

Description

Layyah District (formerly spelled as Leiah) is bounded to the North by Bhakkar District, to the east by Jhang District. The Indus River flows to its Western side across which lies district Dera Ghazi Khan and to the south Muzaffargarh District. District Layyah has an area of 6291 square kilometres and comprises three tehsils and two sub tehsils of:

# Layyah
# Chaubara
# Karor Lal Esan

On January 07, 2007, two new sub tehsils of District Layyah were created:

# Chowk Azam
# Fatehpur

A mega project of Thal greater Canal has been started in Layyah from January 2007.

The word 'Leiah' itself is believed to be derived from 'Leian' in Saraiki language, a plural form of 'Lai' which is a name of bush. In former times, the land in Layyah (Leiah) was mostly covered by sand dunes with bushes (Leian). Therefore this place was known as 'Leian' which became 'Leiah' afterwards.

Majority of people in Layyah are native speakers of Saraiki or Punjabi language, although Urdu is widely understood and spoken. The medium of education is Urdu and English. The district had a population of 1,520,951 of which only 20.47% are urban in 2005. It is thus the fifth-most backward district in Punjab.

Climate and soil

The district Layyah has an extremely hot climate. Maximum temperature in the summer goes up to 45 degree Celsius. The temperature in winter is low due to nearness to Koh-Suleman range of mountains. The tehsil Chaubara is almost barren and consists of forest and sand dunes. It is actually a ‘Rakh’ under the control of Forest Department. The tehsils of Layyah and Karor Lal Esan are comparatively better developed agriculturally compared to other tehsils of the distract but still there are large tracks of sand dunes and uncultivated land. The river Indus passes from North to South on Western side of the district and touches Dera Ghazi Khan.

District at a glance

# Education: 45% (average of urban and rural) 53% male and 40% female.
# Main Towns: Chowk Azam, Ladhana, Chowk Fatehpur and Kot Sultan
# Main Crops: Sugarcane, Wheat, Cotton, Gram and Guar seed.
# Main Fruits: Citrus and Dates.
# Main Vegetables: Onion,Green chilli(70% of the whole production in Pakistan) and Potatoes.
# Forest: 34,338 acres (139 km²)
# Total Metalled Roads: 869 km
# No. of Grid Stations: 7
# No. of Telephone Exchanges: 18
# Number of Industrial Units: 365
# Major Industries: Cotton Ginning & Pressing, Flour Mills, Oil Mills and Sugar.

Notable people

Mohinder Pratap Chand, a well known Urdu writer and poet of India was born in Karor Lal Esan tehsil of Layyah District.

External links

* [http://www.snakevoice.com/pages/pictures/LayyahGallery/index.html Pictures of Layyah]