The Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar on Monday announced to start a new scheme of providing soft loans to the needy youth for skills development and an amount of Rs9 billion will be distributed among the youth for starting their own businesses.
He said this while chairing the provincial parliamentary party meeting, here today in which provincial ministers, MPAs of PTI and PML-Q were present. The meeting finalized its strategy with regard to ongoing Punjab assembly session.
Addressing the meeting, the Chief Minister said that work is in progress on 10 special economic zones to give employment opportunities to 200,000 people. Six special economic zones have been approved while only three special economic zones were established during previous tenures.
He said that 'Village Panchayat' elections are expected in the month of March and the LG&CD department is making necessary arrangements in this regard. The Village Panchayat elections will be held on a non-party basis while the local governments' elections will be held on a party basis in the next phase.
The Chief Minister announced that overhead bridges will be constructed at different places of the provincial metropolis to facilitate the pedestrians along with bringing improvements in the traffic system. Similarly, different roads will be repaired in Lahore with an amount of Rs1 billion.
Usman Buzdar maintained that comprehensive jail reforms have also been introduced by the PTI government and announced that parole rules are being changed to facilitate five thousand prisoners. For the first time in the history of the province, I have used the authority of the Chief Minister to remit prisoners' sentences and one thousand prisoners have also been got released by paying their fines, added Usman Buzdar.
He reiterated that effective measures have been adopted to control price hike and announced that the scope of model bazaars will be extended to the level of tehsils. Farmers' platform has been introduced in model bazaars to facilitate the growers to sell their produce directly, he said. The scope of Punjab Safe City project is being extended to other districts; he added and said that safe city projects are being started in Rawalpindi and DG Khan.
The Chief Minister said that scope of the Walled City of Lahore Authority is being extended to the whole of the province. The operation against encroachments will be continued and assembly members should identify encroachments in their areas for immediate action, he added. He said that five thousand college teaching interns have been recruited and nine mega hospitals are also being constructed and nine thousand beds will be increased. The distribution of Sehat Insaf cards has been completed in 34 districts and its distribution will be completed in rest of the backward districts by end of this month.
He said that the first phase of repair and maintenance of rural roads will be completed by December under Naya Pakistan Manzaleen Aasan programme and 1200 KM long roads will be constructed from January to June next year. A total of 15 billion rupees will be spent on the second phase of this programme, he added.
He said that 883 KM long roads will be constructed in Punjab with an amount of around Rs180 billion under the public-private partnership.
The Chief Minister said that policy for the cement industry has been prepared and 115 land record centers will be made functional by the end of next month.
He said that Punjab's educational policy has been announced and funds have been allocated for providing missing facilities in schools. He said that agitation and march have been best handled by the government adding that assembly members will be informed about six months performance. He said that salaries of police, engineers and doctors have been increased.
Law Minister Raja Basharat briefed the assembly members and hoped that they would fully participate in the current session of Punjab assembly.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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