Under the annual development programme, the planning and development department has released Rs205 billion out of total Rs350 billion allocated for development schemes in financial year 2019-20 while finance department has issued Rs194 billion. So far the departments have utilized Rs115 billion from the released funds.

Chief Secretary Punjab Azam Saleman was briefed in this regard on Tuesday at Civil Secretariat during a review meeting.

Chairman Planning and Development, Additional Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary Home, administrative secretaries of all departments and Chairman PITB were present in the meeting.

The chief secretary, through video calls, also conducted virtual visit of offices of director anti-corruption Faisalabad, district health officer Bahawalnagar, assistant director land record Sahiwal and sub-registrar Rahim Yar Khan.

Chief Secretary Punjab Azam Suleman warned the officers against absence from duty and laxity in work, saying they would have to work diligently to address peoples' problems. The CS also directed to speed up digitization of departments and paperless working, annual development programme and timely disposal of pension cases. He checked the presence of officers in their offices and directly interacted with people. He asked visitors about resolution of their problems and behaviour of officers with them.

The Chief Secretary directed the administrative secretaries to expedite work on digitization of departments and paperless working as progress in this regard would be reviewed on a regular basis. The meeting also decided to strengthen pension wing of S&GAD to ensure early disposal of pension cases.