Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting after his return from five-day trip to China on Saturday. The CM reviewed various proposals with regard to setting priorities for the Annual Development Programme 2011-12. The CM was also given a briefing on the progress made on the Annual Development Programme 2010-11. Senator Ishaq Dar, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, members of the national and provincial assemblies, chief secretary, Planning & Development chairman and secretaries from various departments attended the meeting which lasted for more than four hours.
Briefing the meeting about his China visit, Shahbaz said he was able to hammer out various agreements on the 120-megawatt Taunsa Power Project, a 50-megawatt solar power project and cooperation in agriculture, livestock and other sectors. He said that he met various Chinese moguls who showed interest in developing Ring Roads in Lahore and Rawalpindi. He said an agreement had been reached regarding the Lahore Mass Transit Project. At the meeting, the Planning & Development Commission chairman briefed the CM about development schemes being carried out during the current fiscal year. Health, education and housing secretaries briefed the CM about the pace of projects in their departments.
Addressing the meeting, Shahbaz said the Punjab government was using all its resources for the welfare of the masses. He said despite massive floods, no cuts were made in the funds allocated to education and health during the current fiscal year. He said that concrete measures would be adopted to bring less-developed areas in the province on a par with developed ones. The chief minister admitted the fact that basic and rural health centres have remained unsuccessful in providing better health facilities to the people during the last 63 years. He said the government had imported mobile health units to ensure that modern health facilities were provided to people on their doorsteps.
He said six such units have already started functioning in the flood-hit areas, adding that 20 more mobile health units would be imported during the current fiscal year and 30 in the next fiscal year.
He said that besides free medicines and the dialysis facility in the hospitals of the province, new hospitals and medical colleges were being established. Shahbaz said special attention was being paid to the provision of education, safe drinking water and other basic facilities to the masses. He said the provision of clean drinking water was of great importance and the department concerned should map out a solid strategy with regard to water supply schemes.
Sub-committees on education, health, agriculture and land were constituted which will present their recommendations for the next Annual Development Programme. Lauding the proposals from the participants of the meeting, the chief minister said that the next Annual Development Programme would reflect aspirations of the people in the light of these proposals. He said members of the committees constituted in connection with the Annual Development Programme should actively participate in the meetings to yield better results.
