Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has approved the draft of provincial development strategy 2023 which will be presented before the cabinet for final approval. The CM was reviewing provincial development strategy 2023 during a high-level meeting at the Planning and Development Board (P&D) on Wednesday. Progress made on Provincial Annual Development Programme 2018-19 was reviewed and salient feature of proposed ADP for the financial year 2019-20 was discussed as well.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that a composite development strategy has been devised to promote the provincial economy on the durable lines. The growth rate would be increased and investment would be promoted in collaboration with the private sector. "We want to rectify the geographical imbalance of the past governments with regard to development and the goal of balanced geographical development would be achieved through a comprehensive development strategy," he added.
He said solid steps will be taken to increase the provincial resources so that people could be provided with more facilities. He said more resources will be allocated for the provision of education, healthcare, clean drinking water and other facilities. He said the draft development strategy has been devised with the utmost care, hard work and all the stakeholders have also been consulted. New steps have been proposed by learning from the mistakes of the past policies and governmental steps will help alleviate poverty to improve the quality of life of the people, he added.
He also reviewed progress made on provincial ADP 2018-19 along with deliberating upon the salient features of proposed ADP 2019-20. The Chief Minister expressed his displeasure over failure of some departments in timely utilization of development funds released for different schemes during the current financial year. He said timely completion of public welfare schemes is essential as it benefits the people.
He directed to ensure timely utilization of funds for public welfare schemes adding that delay would not be tolerated. Delay in the utilization of development funds should be avoided as this would not work now, he added. The funds released to different departments should be properly utilized on public welfare schemes and delay by some of the departments is unacceptable. He said timely and maximum utilization of funds should be ensured during the current financial year. The Chief Minister said that next year's ADP should depict the priorities of the people in the real sense and added that more funds should be allocated for education, healthcare, clean drinking water and other social sectors. The Secretary P&D briefed about progress on provincial ADP 2018-19 and important features of proposed ADP 2019-20.