During the eight months of the current fiscal year (2021-22), all government departments of Punjab have utilized their 66 per cent of development funds.
Sehar Iqbal, the spokesperson of the Punjab Planning and Development (P&D) department informed Profit that during the current fiscal year (2021-2022), development funds of Rs458 billion were released for the departments of Punjab out of which Rs300 billion has been utilized so far whereas the utilization of funds by departments has reached 66 per cent this time.
She further informed that P&D Board Chairman Abdullah Khan Sumbal had directed that meetings be held with all the concerned stakeholders and all obstacles in the use of funds be removed.
“This is the reason that on the one hand the approval of development schemes remain uninterrupted and on the other hand all the obstacles in the use of funds were removed and Punjab got a historic victory in this regard,” spokesperson added.
Sehar further added that 66 meetings of the Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) were held during the last eight months of the current fiscal year and about Rs90 billion was released for road projects in Punjab out of which funds of Rs57 billion (68 per cent) have been utilized.
“Similarly, a total of Rs19.5 billion was released for government buildings out of which Rs11.1 billion has been utilized whereas a total of Rs89.3 billion has been released to the department of Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education and 68 percent of the funds have been utilized by these departments,” she said.
She added that a total of Rs26.416 billion was allocated for urban development out of which 49 per cent has been utilized while RS34.6 billion was allocated for water supply and sanitation of which 63 per cent has been utilized.
“The School Education department used 79 per cent of its total Rs31.7 billion, a total of Rs30.7 billion were released for the local government and community development department and the department utilized its 65 per cent funds. Similarly, agriculture sector utilized 58 per cent of the total Rs29.9 billion, Planning and Development utilized total Rs26.1 billion which was 84 per cent of the total funds and the Irrigation department utilized 50 per cent of the funds. However, other sectors including primary and secondary healthcare, transport, higher education, industries, sports and youth affairs, environment and energy utilized their funds from 34 per cent to 87 per cent.
Meanwhile speaking to Profit, P&D Board chairman informed that this was the historic utilization and he was expecting that masses would be benefitted from the huge development budget.
