Amraiz Khan
Provincial Minister for Finance Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht said that the Punjab government was providing the best opportunity to low-income homeless people to get private houses on easy installments.
For this purpose, in the first phase, three-marla houses will be constructed on semi-rural (pre-urban) areas on government land identified by the Board of Revenue.
The minister informed this presiding over the 54th meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Finance and Development at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat here Thursday. The Punjab government will provide land and revolving funds for the construction of houses.
The construction of houses will be completed in collaboration with the New Pakistan Housing Development Authority and Bank of Punjab and other banks.
Other participants in the meeting included Minister for Industries and Commerce Mian Aslam Iqbal, Advisor to Chief Minister for Economic Affairs Dr. Salman Shah, Chief Secretary Punjab Muhammad Jawad Rafique, Chairman Planning and Development Board Abdullah Sanbal, Secretary Finance Iftikhar Ali Sahoo and Secretaries of departments concern.
Industries Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal directed the Department of Housing and Urban Development to verify the non-agricultural nature of the land in pre-urban areas before the commencement of the scheme so that after the commencement of the scheme it would be declared as green land.
Dr. Salman Shah termed the scheme as a benchmark plan of the Punjab government and stressed on the need to expand its scope.
The Chief Secretary Punjab directed the concerned departments to activate the Punjab Land Development Company to expand the scope of the scheme in future.
The meeting discussed that 15 agendas were tackled by various departments in the meeting.
The meeting approved the purchase of equipment for heart surgery at Children’s Hospital Multan, allocations of additional funds of Rs 8.913 million for payments due to the agriculture department for the financial year 2017-18, and a supplementary grant to the Population Welfare Department for the Punjab Population Innovation Fund.
The meeting also approved the funds of the scheme for payment of pensions and Phase-I of preparation of starting business in Punjab Small Industries.
Further, the proposal of the local government for the grant of the share of the Metropolitan Corporation Rawalpindi in the tax on immovable property and allocation of funds for the treatment of the son of the Naib Qasid of scale one.
The meeting approved the funds for providing shade at bus stops in Lahore while instructed the transport department to brief the Committee in details about the current status of the Lahore Transport Company.
The Finance Minister directed the law and parliamentary affairs department to present the request for lifting the ban on recruitment to the concerned committee.
