Protection of forests must to curb harsh effects of climate: Minister

LAHORE: Punjab Local Government Minister Zeeshan Rafique has said that protection of forests and agricultural lands was necessary to curb the harsh effects of climate change and hence, they want commercial use of agricultural lands to be regularised.

He expressed these views while presiding over a meeting here on Friday. Punjab Local Government Secretary Shakeel Ahmad Mian and Special Secretary Arshad Baig were also present. During the meeting, the suggestions for creating Punjab Spatial Planning Authority (PSPA) were discussed. The proposed authority would regularise the commercial use of agricultural lands. The meeting was briefed on PSPA functions by the Project Management Unit.

While addressing the meeting, the Minister said that the proposed authority would monitor lands in every district with the help of modern technology. “NOC of PSPA would be mandatory before approval of development projects,” he added.

He directed to prepare a presentation for the approval of the Punjab Chief Minister, adding that the gradual non-availability of peripheral agricultural lands near cities was alarming. “There was no doubt that commercial use of land without a master plan creates problems and the Punjab government was introducing Planning Support System (PSS) to solve the problems to a large extent,” he added.

According to him, health, education, IT and economic zones would be created along with residential zones in the cities. There was no problem in building residential schemes with complete planning; however, it was necessary to discourage schemes without approved master plans. Providing quality residential facilities to the public was one of the priorities of the Chief Minister. The establishment of the PSPA would help in the implementation of the Chief Minister’s vision.

On this occasion, the meeting was informed that in the first phase, the work on Planning Support System has been completed in 10 districts, while the work was in progress in 21 other districts; however, the districts under the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) were not included in this programme.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024