LAHORE: The first phase of passing the Punjab budget was completed on Thursday as 43 demands for grants worth more than Rs 2 trillion were passed in the Punjab Assembly while rejecting cut motions moved by the opposition benches.
The House proceedings started with a delay of more than two hours with Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi in the chair. The opposition lawmakers moved cut motions on education, health, agriculture and police departments.
The House passed four demands on grants after the discussion while the rest were passed by implementing gluten. After the passage of finance bill on Friday (today), the process of passing of budget will be completed.
While expressing their views on the cut motion, the opposition termed the budget as anti-people. PML-N MPA Rana Mashhood said budget is against the people of Punjab. He also said practically the allocation of education budget is decreased due to inflation.
Punjab Schools Education Minister Dr Murad Raas criticized the PML-N for not doing anything during its ten years tenure in the province. He also said present government had introduced e- transfer and online posting system for teachers. The government has allocated Rs 19 billion for Punjab Education Foundation.
Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and Speaker Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi held an important meeting in the chamber of Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat on Thursday. On this occasion, the proceedings of the budget meeting so far were reviewed and a strategy was worked out for the approval of the budget.
The chief minister and the speaker appreciated the efforts of Raja Basharat in enacting record legislation in the present era and hoped that more principal legislation would be enacted in the coming years in the large interest of the people of province. Raja Basharat informed the Chief Minister that research cells were being set up in the Punjab Assembly and at the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Department to streamline the legislative process and provide guidance to the members of the assembly in this regard.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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