LAHORE: Punjab Chief Secretary Abdullah Khan Sumbal directed all departments on Thursday to work hard for transparent and timely utilisation of the development budget, saying that unnecessary delay in projects would not be tolerated.
He gave the instruction while presiding over a meeting at the P&D Department to review implementation of the annual development programme (ADP).
The chief secretary said that it was necessary to achieve the monthly targets related to utilisation of funds for development projects. He stressed that time-frame from the initiation to the completion of the schemes must be followed. He said that the allocated funds should not lapse in any case.
The chief secretary issued orders to the departments to take immediate steps to get approval for the unapproved schemes and said that progress in implementation of the ADP would be reviewed regularly.
He said that the P&D department should be informed in case of any roadblocks in execution of uplift schemes. He also asked the departments to enhance coordination with the P&D Board members for progress on delayed schemes.
The P&D Department officials gave a detailed briefing to the meeting about the allocated development budget, release, and utilisation of funds.
The meeting was briefed that 4,556 out of 4,992 schemes had been approved and Rs 334 billion had been released, out of the allocated funds of Rs 685 billion.
The additional chief secretary (South Punjab) and secretaries of all departments participated in the meeting.
