Provincial Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Local Government Raja Basharat has said that upcoming session of Punjab Assembly commencing from Monday would contain great importance with respect to new five bills and couple of ordinances. The most important bill titled "Punjab Local Government Bill 2019" will ensure public autonomy and sustainable development at grass root level.
He was addressing a pre-session media briefing on Saturday. Parliamentary Secretary for Law, Ali Abbas Shah was also present. Raja Basharat greeted the new President Mian Aslam, Secretary Faizan Bangish and their team newly elected for Punjab Assembly Press Gallery the other day. He also admired the services and conduct of outgoing office-bearers of press gallery.
He hoped that new team would maintain the smooth relations between government and the press. The Minister said that the new LG system was a reflection of PM Imran Khan and CM Usman Buzdar's vision who wanted to see their public empowered and prosperous. He said, "After approval of new LG Bill-2019 from Punjab Assembly, the Punjab LG Act 2013 will be repelled. The new system has two tears i.e. Tehsil Council and Municipal Corporation /Town Committee and Neighbourhood Council and Punchayat with abolition of District Council and Union Council of previous system.
Each village of Punjab will have independent local body as Punchayat and urban population will have Neighbourhood Council at Mohallah level. First time in the history, the minorities of Punjab will be enabled to elect their own head and representatives of their respective local bodies.
The representatives of Tehsil Councils and Municipal Corporations will come through party-based elections while there will be non-party elections for the Punchayat and Neighbourhood Councils.
The new local bodies will receive direct funds of Rs40 billion from the government to identify and execute their own projects. The LG system will bring self-reliance and sustainability among the local bodies of Punjab. Replying to the questions of journalists, Raja Basharat suggested that Usman Buzdar would be the most successful CM of Punjab.
He said that legislation was the constitutional right of government against which any citizen is free to go to the courts. He assured that deputy commissioners would neither have interference in the new local bodies nor the status of police would be changed however, local bodies would be empowered to supervise the education and health sector.
Comments
Comments are closed.