LAHORE, Dec 20: Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi said on Saturday residential colonies would be established for government employees in every major city in the province with soft loans from commercial banks.

One such colony would be launched in every major city every month to give houses to all the government employees upon their retirement as a reward for their services, he said.

The chief minister was addressing government employees after laying foundation stone of the first such colony here at Mohlanwal. Housing Minister Syed Raza Ali Gilani, secretary Chaudhry Riaz Ahmad and leaders of employees and clerks’ associations were present on the occasion.

He said houses would be given to the employees of the Lahore Development Authority and the city district government as well. All employees could sell their houses after getting possession of the new ones, he added.

He said he would inaugurate one such colony every month in Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Sargodha, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan. The government employees would be given houses in the city of their choice.

Mr Elahi said nominal monthly deductions would be made from the salaries of all employees for recovering the cost of the houses, adding he had also talked to the commercial banks for the soft loans for the colonies. The State Bank governor also assured cooperation to him in this regard.

“We will not shift any burden towards you,” he said, and also announced that a revolving fund had also been created in the Government Servants Housing Foundation looking after the chain of colonies, for their permanent maintenance.

He said the bureaucracy had always planned and executed the schemes for which governments took the credit. The projects being taken up by the current government reflected their wisdom and “the colonies are a small return for their services,” he said.

The chief minister said he was not taking any credit of giving houses to the government employees, which in fact was their right.

During the planning of the housing colonies, he said, senior government officials worked hard and even a team was sent to see how army was constructing houses for its officers. He said he made it sure that the houses should also been given to the low-grade employees and the reason was that they could not even think of owning these upon retirement after spending their lives with their meagre salaries. “I am in politics since 1981 and fully know how politicians seek information about working in offices and mood of the officer (Sahib) through messengers (Naib Qasid). I also know how the successful visitor rewards the messenger and ignores the one who failed after visiting a government office,” Mr Elahi said in a lighter vein.

He said he thought of constructing houses for the government employees to give answer to the question normally asked by conscientious among them what reward the state would give them for their honesty. “The colony is an answer to their question,” he said.

He said he had asked Lahore Nazim Mian Amer Mehmood to plan houses also for the employees of the district government and the LDA. “None of the past governments ever thought of giving houses to the government employees and the initiative taken by me is an honour given to me by God,” he said, and added this was also a reply to the opposition which used to term the colonies a mere hollow slogan.

Mr Elahi said he had asked the housing department to buy more land for the two schools being constructed in the Lahore colony.

The housing minister said eight more colonies would be constructed in different cities of the province. He said land for the colony had been purchased by the government at a cost of Rs275 million. It had also given Rs100 million as a seed money for the project.

The houses of those, who died during service, would be given to their legal heirs and the government would clear all their dues.

Chaudhry Riaz said land had already been acquired for colonies in other cities, saying from today onwards all the government employees would become a constituency of the chief minister.

Union leaders Ejaz Ahmad Ejaz and Nusrat Ali Toor praised the chief minister for fulfilling a long standing demand of the government employees.