The annual budget of the City District Government Lahore (CDGL), with a total outlay of Rs 23.06 billion for the year 2013-14, was approved on Saturday.
Though the major chunk of the allocations would be utilised in non-development schemes, especially education and cleanliness arrangements, the roads under CDGL control would also get some attention from the authorities. The administrator and Lahore District Coordination Officer (DCO) Naseem Sadiq formally gave approval to the budget in a meeting of the district government’s high ranking officers at DCO Office. The meeting was attended by the executive district officer (EDO) Finance, district officer (DO) Planning and officials from the finance department.
While briefing the DCO about the CDGL budget for 2013-14, EDO Finance Suleman Ghani revealed that CDGL would spend approximately Rs 22.40 billion this year. An amount of Rs 16.22 billion will be given by the Punjab government, while the CDGL will recover an amount of Rs 1.39 billion from its resources in the city, he said.
Ghani further revealed that Rs 19.14 billion were kept for non-development schemes while an amount of Rs 3.25 billion had been earmarked for development schemes in the annual budget. From the non-development budget 44 percent will be spent on education, 8 percent on health and 18 percent on cleanliness arrangements, he added. After the briefing, the Lahore DCO approved the annual budget of CDGL and stated that the city government would focus on education, health and repair of roads.