State land in possession of UAE President: Lease extension allowed by Punjab govt

LAHORE: The Punjab Cabinet in its 39th meeting, held with Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar in the chair, accorded approval to further extend the lease of state land in Cholistan and Rahimyar Khan on previous rates to the UAE President. This initiative of the Punjab cabinet will further strengthen the ties between both the countries.

The cabinet meeting gave in principle approval of five billion rupees loan to the Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) for acquiring the land. Moreover, the meeting also approved for providing state land for the master plan of Ravi River Front Urban Development Project. Authority will present its business plan and financial model for this purpose. Vice Chairman LDA Sheikh Muhammad Imran and Chairman of the Authority Rashid Aziz gave the briefing to the cabinet about Ravi River Front Urban Development Project.

The cabinet simplifies the long process of issuance of NOCs for installing petrol pumping in the province by reducing the issuance period from 90 days to 30 days. Under 3 percent special quota for visually impaired persons, the cabinet also approved to give them special relaxation in upper age limit in the employment.

While addressing the meeting, the CM said the PTI government has come into power for providing relief to a common man and user charges cannot be reconsidered right now. The cabinet also gave approval for the equal syllabus throughout the province.

The meeting, in the light of decision of Honourable Lahore High Court and under Rule 17-A, gave approval of recruitment on permanent basis. It also gave approval the pay package and terms and conditions for the vice chancellors of different medical universities of Punjab. Transfer policy 2020 of the Special Education Department was also approved in the meeting. Under this policy, teachers and other staff will be transferred near to their residents.

The cabinet also approved seed money of Rs100 million from the Punjab government for the endowment fund of National Tourism Coordination Board/Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation. Land User Plans Rules 2020 also got approval in the meeting for using Punjab Local Governments’ lands.

Payment issue of construction of 410-bed civil hospital in Bahawalpur was referred to the Cabinet Standing Committee for Finance & Development which will present the final recommendations after reviewing all the matter. The matter of provision of land for setting up Children Hospital in Gujranwala was also referred to the Board of Revenue. The cabinet meeting also gave approval to the appointment of two members namely Hassan Ahmed Riaz Advocate and Khalid Mehmood Chaudhry in the Lahore Development Authority Tribunal. Approval was granted to appoint in-service Judge Habib Ullah Amir for the post of judicial member for the Appellant Tribunal of Punjab Revenue Authority.

Provincial Ministers, Advisors, Special Advisors, Chief Secretary and Secretaries of the concerned departments participated in the meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020