LAHORE: During the eight months of the current fiscal year (2021-22), all government departments of Punjab have utilized their 66 percent of development funds, Profit learnt here on Monday.
Sehar Iqbal, the spokesperson of the Punjab Planning and Development (P&D) Department informed Profit that during the current fiscal year (2021-2022), development funds of RS 458 billion were released for the departments of Punjab out of which RS 300 billion has been utilized so far whereas the utilization of funds by departments has reached 66 percent this time.
She further informed that in fact the Chairman P&D Board Abdullah Khan Sumbal had directed that meetings be held with all the concerned stakeholders and all obstacles in the use of funds be removed.
“This is the reason that on the one hand the approval of development schemes remain uninterrupted and on the other hand all the obstacles in the use of funds were removed and Punjab got a historic victory in this regard,” spokesperson added.
Iqbal further added that 66 meetings of the Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) were held during the last eight months of the current fiscal year and about RS 90 billion was released for road projects in Punjab out of which funds of RS 57 billion (68 percent) have been utilized.
“Similarly, a total of RS 19.5 billion was released for government buildings out of which RS 11.1 billion has been utilized whereas a total of RS 89.3 billion has been released to the Department of Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education and 68 percent of the funds have been utilized by these departments,” she said.
She added that a total of RS 26.416 billion was allocated for urban development out of which 49 percent has been utilized while RS 34.6 billion was allocated for water supply and sanitation of which 63 percent has been utilized.
“The School Education Department used 79 percent of its total RS 31.7 billion, a total of RS 30.7 billion were released for the Local Government and Community Development Department and the department utilized its 65 percent funds. Similarly, agriculture sector utilized 58 percent of the total RS 29.9 billion, Planning and Development utilized total RS 26.1 billion which was 84 percent of the total funds and the Irrigation Department utilized 50 percent of the funds. However, other sectors including primary and secondary healthcare, transport, higher education, industries, sports and youth affairs, environment and energy utilized their funds from 34 percent to 87 percent.
Meanwhile speaking to Profit, the chairman P&D Board informed that this was the historic utilization and he was expecting that masses would be benefited from the huge development budget.
“From this kind of utilization, the investment and job opportunities will be created for the citizens and it will lead to the welfare of the people and progress towards betterment. Similarly, with the speedy utilization of the budget the service delivery will be increased. In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, the realization about the importance of improving has led the Punjab government to use 20 percent of the budget on the health sector. It will not only improve the health services but the construction of more hospitals are underway,” he concluded.
