Punjab govt focusing equally on uplift of urban, rural areas

LAHORE: Provincial Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Local Government & Community Development (LG&CD) Raja Basharat Thursday said the Punjab government was focusing equally on the uplift of urban and rural areas under the vision of prime minister and chief minister Punjab.

While presiding over a meeting held at Civil Secretariat, he said the PTI government was committed to allocate more funds for the areas ignored badly during the last regime.

He said, "New policies should be devised to make the local bodies financially self-reliant through enhancing source revenues.

One of such components of this strategy may be to establish modern cattle markets in the large cities of the province already lacking this facility."

The minister was told that a pilot project would be started next month to make Sahiwal and Sialkot sustainable cities with the help of the World Bank under Punjab Intermediate Cities Improvement and Investment Project (PICIIP).

The next phase of PICIIP would be started in Sargodha, DG Khan, Muzaffar Garh, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan.

He was informed that another project was being launched in 16 cities of Punjab to repair and revive their existing development infrastructure.

Secretary LG&CD Capt. (Retd) Saif Anjum and other officers briefed the minister on foreign-funded projects of the LG&CD department.