Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has set a record for the fastest work in a short time, surpassing the chief ministers of other provinces in decision-making.
In seven cabinet meetings, a new record has been set for the execution of official work by taking decisions on 371 agenda items. 59 agenda items of local government, 45 for housing, 42 for the home department, 34 for revenue, 36 for finance, 23 for specialized healthcare and 19 for primary & secondary health were decided as Parvez Elahi took immediate decisions for the welfare of the people.
A 4-hour long meeting was held to review the progress made on the decisions of the cabinet meetings under the chair of Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi.
CM Parvez Elahi directed that the public welfare projects should be completed without delay and made it clear that no obstacle would be tolerated. The necessary action for the recruitment should be completed soon; he emphasised and added that education & healthcare projects and recruitments should be prioritized. He also directed to early complete the legislation for government departments to ensure good governance. The CM said that the fee for hunting Chinkara for foreign hunters should be set at 25 thousand dollars in the next season.
The CM noted that the World Bank would give 200 million dollars to the Punjab Affordable Housing Project to provide houses to government employees on retirement. 20 centers of excellence would also be established in TEVTA and vigilance would be done through drone technology in police and other departments, he said.
Secretaries of the concerned departments presented their reports on the progress made on the cabinet decisions. Former federal minister Moonis Elahi and Hussain Elahi MNA were also present.
The meeting was told that important projects would be completed in Punjab with foreign funding of 850 million dollars. Punjab Open Land Enhancement System would be implemented through foreign funding. The work was in progress on 825 development projects in Punjab and tenders have been issued for 323 local government projects. Meanwhile, a 70% increase in registration has been noted by reducing stamp duty by 100%.
Chief Secretary Abdullah Khan Sumbal, Principal Secretary to CM Muhammad Khan Bhatti, ACS Asadullah Khan, chairman P&D, secretaries of finance, higher education, local government, agriculture, excise and taxation, specialized healthcare and medical education, forestry, primary and secondary health and transport departments and others attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhry Parvez Elahi gave the notification for the transfer of land for the district complex Talagang to Hafiz Ammar Yasir MPA at his office.
The land of the agriculture department has been transferred to the district administration for the construction of a district complex in the middle of the city for the convenience of the people.
I fulfilled the promise by giving Talagang a district status; the CM stated and assured that construction work would be started soon. The people of Talagang are my own and I want to do more for them, Parvez Elahi added.
Hafiz Ammar Yasir termed Parvez Elahi a benefactor of the people and thanked him for granting district status to Talagang and the provision of land for the district complex.
Advocate General Punjab Ahmad Awais, acting SMBR Naveed Hussain Shirazi and Malik Nauman Ahmad were also present.
CS orders security, other arrangements for census: Punjab Chief Secretary Abdullah Khan Sumbal on Wednesday directed the authorities concerned to complete security and other arrangements in the province for digital census at the earliest.
He issued this directive during a meeting of the Provincial Coordinating Committee for Digital Census held at the Civil Secretariat. The Provincial Census Commissioner, Commissioner Lahore Division and top police and military officials attended the meeting while Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Member (Support Services) Sarwar Gondal, all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners participated through video link.
Speaking at the meeting, the Chief Secretary said that census was an important national responsibility and the future political and economic scenario of the country would largely depend on the data obtained from the census. He said that the officers and staff must do the work of the census as a national duty. He also directed the provincial departments to enhance cooperation with the PBS to complete the census successfully.
The Chief Secretary ordered the deputy commissioners to immediately provide facilities needed for the training of field staff for the census in the districts. He said that by assigning the census duty to the employees of the Education department, the educational activities should not be affected in any way.
Sarwar Gondal briefed the meeting about the work plan of digital census. He said that digital census had been successfully completed in 33 districts of the country as a pilot project. He mentioned that a total of 61,000 field staff would perform duties during census in Punjab province. He said that the training process of 328 master trainers had been completed, while the training of field staff would start from January 7. He added that trained staff of PBS had been deployed with deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners for providing assistance.
