Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif presided over a high level meeting held to review the annual development programme in large cities, packages for various districts and implementation on Southern Punjab Development Programme at Chief Minister's Secretariat, here on Saturday.
The chief minister directed that no stone should be left unturned in achieving the development targets of current fiscal year and all energies be utilised for the purpose. He directed all divisional commissioners to hold meetings regularly for reviewing the pace of implementation on development projects and law and order situation and ensure participation of elected representatives in the meetings. He directed that no administrative hurdle should be in the way of development projects and in case of any obstacle, Chairman Planning & Development, in consultation with the concerned departments, should remove the same immediately.
Shahbaz announced that the first three districts displaying excellent performance and timely and transparent completion of development projects would be encouraged, and directed the chief secretary to devise a strategy for selection of the districts. He said that transparency in development projects is the hallmark of Punjab. Proper utilisation of every single penny of public money and timely completion of development projects would be ensured at all costs, he added. He said that such realistic projects should be prepared for next financial year at the time of fixing of priorities, which could be fully beneficial for the province and people.
He observed that bringing the backward areas at par with the developed ones is the priority of the government and mega development projects are being executed in 11 districts under Southern Punjab Development Programme (SPDP) for that purpose. He also said that record funds have been allocated for the development of southern Punjab while development projects are being completed in those areas on priority basis.
The chief minister termed promotion of education need of the hour for rapid development, saying Punjab government has taken revolutionary steps for improvement of the sector. A revolutionary project of Daanish schools has been launched for providing modern and quality education along-with facilities to the people of far-flung and backward areas, he maintained. He further said that six Daanish Schools for male and female students have started working in Bahawalpur division whereas foundation stones of the schools has been laid in Dera Ghazi Khan, Mianwali and Attock and the project would soon be completed.
Shahbaz said that due to the poor performance of rural and basic health centres, government has imported mobile units for providing modern medical facilities to the people of backward areas. Of the mobile units, six have started providing medical facilities in the flood-hit areas. He said that the performance of these units is quite encouraging and a large number of people are benefiting from them.
He disclosed that keeping in view the performance of those mobile health units, 50 more mobile health units would be imported. He directed that 20 health mobile units be imported by June 30. Directing acceleration of the pace of work on the projects of new hospitals and medical colleges, the chief minister said no compromise would be made on the quality of development projects.
Earlier, Chief Secretary, Nasir Mehmood Khan Khosa and Chairman Planning & Development, Javed Aslam gave detailed briefings regarding implementation on annual development programme, large cities, district packages and Southern Punjab Development Programme. Chairman Planning & Development informed about the ratio of utilisation of funds, development projects of large cities and southern Punjab and added that out of the 144 projects, work has been started on 140 projects. He also informed about the implementation on development projects in each division.
Secretaries Health, C&W and Irrigation on the occasion threw light on the pace of implementation on development projects of their respective departments. Divisional Commissioners also informed about the progress of development projects in their respective divisions. Senior Advisor Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, Senator Ishaq Dar, Provincial Ministers, Members National and Provincial Assemblies, Chief Secretary, Chairman Planning & Development Department, secretaries of various departments and divisional commissioners were also present in the meeting.
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