Punjab govt disburses Rs18 bln funds for municipal services

LAHORE: The Punjab government has disbursed Rs18 billion to 136 tehsil councils for immediate provision of municipal services to the citizens, ARY News reported on Friday.

The secretary local government disbursed the funds to the tehsil councils over the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar in a step to provide facilities to the citizens.

Usman Buzdar said in a statement that the provincial government formulated its annual development programme for 2020-21 that will benefit the population of 306 local governments. He said that a new era of development has begun on the grassroots level.

The chief minister detailed that various development schemes have been approved that worth Rs18 billion, whereas, tenders of other schemes were also released to initiate the work on it.

The government has set a proportion of funds for the development projects up to Rs7 billion for rural areas besides initiating work on various schemes for metropolitan and municipal corporations. 967 schemes were started for sewerage and roads.

The development work on 131 schemes for the provision of clean water has been started, 33 for the solid waste management system and 10 schemes for health.

CM Buzdar said that the utilisation of funds will expedite the development process besides helping stop the spread of diseases through the provision of safe drinking water and a modern solid waste management system.