Punjab Minister for Excise and Taxation and Finance Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman while addressing the party workers here on Wednesday has said Rs 2 billion have been allocated during current fiscal year for achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
"In result of the government economic policies and current fiscal year's budget, job opportunities will be offered to four million people whereas two million people will be provided technical training, to make them self-sufficient. The government wants to upgrade the growth rate of the province to eight percent till next four years due to which more than seven million people will be able to live above poverty line," he added.
According to him, the government distributed solar lamps among 200,000 students last year with a cost of Rs 2.5 billion under Ujala Programme. During current fiscal year laptops and solar lamps are being distributed among the students on merit under a transparent system. Terrorism and unemployment can be wiped out through promotion of education and provision of jobs to the youth.
There is a need to utilise national resources equitably for setting up of a peaceful society and economic prosperity of the masses whereas problems like corruption and unemployment can be controlled through good governance and transparency. Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman said four billion rupees had been provided for issuance of health insurance cards under which low income people would be able to get state-of-the-art healthcare facilities in private medical institutes as well as in public sector hospitals.
He said 600 million rupees had been reserved for dialysis facilities for poor kidney patients. A huge amount of 8.25 billion rupees would be spent on the provision of free treatment and medicines to the poor and destitute in public sector hospitals of the province, he added.