Rs 5.437 billion tax-free budget for Rawalpindi approved

The City District Assembly Rawalpindi has approved tax-free budget of Rs 5.437 billion for the fiscal 2007-08. City District Nazim, Raja Javed Ikhlas presented the budget in the District Assembly session, which met with Convenor and Naib Nazim, Muhammad Afzal Khokhar in the chair on Tuesday.
Presenting the budget, the City District Nazim said that Rs 54.720 million has been allocated for the projects relating to Citizen Community Boards (CCBs) whereas the income from its own sources would be Rs 41.350 million.
During 2006-07, under the instructions of the Punjab government, Rs 216 million were released for on-going development projects and Rs 144 million for new schemes as Supplementary Grant.
He said that Rs 80 million and 57.9 million have been earmarked for maintenance of roads and government buildings respectively, while 21.9 million for school management committees and 43.69 million for purchase of medicines during 2007-08. He said that Rs 2.7 million would be distributed as honorarium among women members of the District Assembly.
Ikhlas said that Rs 50 million would be allocated for the repair and fuel expenses of the vehicles of Solid Waste Management while Rs 57 million have been allocated for procurement of new fire and solid waste vehicles. He revealed that CDGR would generate revenue of Rs 82 million from Commercialisation fee and Rs 30 million from advertisement charges, Rs 7 million are expected to be generated from General Bus Stand, Rs 4.5 million from license fee, Rs 7 million from property transfer taxes and Rs 7 million would be collected from hospitals.
"Initially Rs 5 million has been allocated for construction of District Assembly Hall during 2007-08", he said and demanded the Punjab government to provide at least Rs 100 million for completion of those different projects, which remained incomplete due to lack of funds for the last many years.
"A strategy has been evolved to reduce unemployment in the district and during the year 2007-08 teachers, road maintenance, staff and sanitary workers would be recruited after getting approval of the provincial government," he said. He said that President Pervez Musharraf has granted the special funds of Rs 460 million for rural electrification and provision of other amenities to the citizens in the district.
On the other hand, Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhry Pervez Elahi has also approved the funds for the construction of Rawalpindi Bye-Pass. Moreover, Rawalpindi Environmental Improvement Project (REIP) is underway with the total cost of Rs 5 billion that was provided by Asian Development Bank to supply clean and safe drinking water to the Rawalpindi residents.