June 15, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1428

LAHORE, June 14: The Punjab government has set aside a record Rs150 billion for the Annual Development Plan (ADP) for the year 2007-08, which is 50 per cent more than the current year's Rs100 billion.

It includes the core provincial development programme of Rs93 billion, special programmes of Rs40 billion, districts development programmes of Rs14 billion and development of katchi abadies at a cost of Rs3 billion.

“The development allocation has been increased to achieve high economic growth, extend social sector coverage, improve delivery of service, cut poverty and ensure balanced regional development with due consideration to gender," the budget documents reveal.

The programme will be financed by province's own resource (Rs142 billion) and foreign assistance (Rs7.94 billion), according to the budget documents presented before the Punjab Assembly here on Thursday.

Sixty-six per cent of the funding has been allocated for ongoing projects to ensure their completion while 34 per cent funding will go to new projects. Forty-six per cent of 3,290 schemes are likely to be completed during the year.

The new ADP focuses on development of southern Punjab with 12 per cent edge in allocations, while services and urban sectors have also been given priority.

Social sectors i.e. education, health, water supply and sanitation will see 48 per cent increase in funding, infrastructural investments 35 per cent and pro-poor sectors 82 per cent.

The allocation for education sector has been fixed at over Rs21 billion, which is 72 per cent higher than the last financial year. It includes Rs5 billion World Bank assisted Punjab Education Sector Reforms Programme.

A model programme of upgrading two best colleges in each district will be launched for turning them into high quality institutions with autonomous status. Two of the weakest colleges will be picked up for complete overhaul while a block allocation of Rs4 billion will be made for universities in the province.

Health sector has been given Rs6.5 billion share, which is 51 per cent more than the previous year. Around 105 rural health centres and 2,456 basic health units will be fully funded this year.

The allocation for water supply and sanitation has been enhanced by 25 per cent over the previous year and stood at Rs6.5 billion, out of which Rs3.7 billion is earmarked for water supply component and Rs2.8 billion for sanitation schemes.

A sum of Rs616 million has been set aside for formulating social protection strategy for Punjab, establishing social protection unit, providing helpline for social protection services, constructing buildings of shelter homes, setting up eight model children homes in five districts and setting up old age homes in three more districts.A house will be built in Rawalpindi for unclaimed babies, barracks will be constructed for female inmates in Rawalpindi and Faisalabad district jails.

An amount of Rs2.3 billion has been allocated for eliminating regional disparities between the developed and less-developed or backward areas. Strategic interventions in this sector include southern Punjab Integrated Rural Development Project, Integrated Poverty Alleviation Programme for southern Punjab, construction of 100 km roads to provide market access to livestock rearing inhabitants of Cholistan and launching of phase-II of Barani Village Development Project.

The local government and community development department has got Rs6.95 billion in the ADP. Of these Rs1.85 billion will go to Tameer-I-Punjab programme, Rs2 billion to local development and Rs1 billion to community uplift programme.

The focus will be on timely execution of schemes, including 19 wastewater treatment plants, improving infrastructure of 10 selected TMAs, and training of 50,000 male and female councillors. A sum of Rs14.3 billion has been apportioned for roads in the ADP for the next fiscal. It accounts for almost one tenth of the core development programme for 2007-08. Special projects like Lahore Ring Road and Sialkot-Lahore Motorway are being taken up in addition to this outlay.

Missing road links will be constructed, province-wise secondary arteries covering north-south and east-west corridors will be built and linked with national motorways, widening and improvement of geometry of existing roads will be undertaken. As many as 700 km long roads will be widened in addition to construction of 600 km new roads.

Irrigation sector's total outlay for the year 2007-08 is estimated at Rs11 billion. Out of total 112 schemes included in the ADP, 63 schemes have been targeted for completion by allocating 66 per cent of the outlay to the ongoing and 34 per cent to new projects.

The main targets are lining of 300 km channels, rehabilitation and modernisation of Taunsa Barrage, completion of Ghazial, Khai, Domeli and 11 other small dams, improving drainage and flood protection for 100 sq mile area in Gujranwala, Sialkot, Sheikhupura, Narowal, Sargodha and Kasur districts.

A 3.2MW Khokhara hydropower project on UJC will also be completed besides preparation of five additional hydel power projects of 24.8MW combined.

An amount of Rs3.8 billion has been allocated for urban development sector, which is 219 per cent higher than the last year's. The allocation includes Rs2 billion for projects to replace outlived water supply lines causing gastroenteritis threats.

The loan for Punjab Large Cities Development Project is being negotiated with the World Bank to make target city districts of Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan and Ralwalpindi engines of economic growth. The proposed $300 million loan is aimed at improving solid waste management and urban transport sectors and strengthening municipal finance by improving their own revenue and inter-governmental transfers.

Of production sectors, a sum of Rs2.8 billion has been apportioned to agriculture sector, Rs1.2 billion to livestock and Rs1.63 billion for TEVTA.

----In the services sectors, Rs1.25 have been given to information technology, Rs1.8 billion to emergency service and Rs82 million to tourism sector.

Planning and Development department will get Rs2.95 billion and the environment Rs1.15 billion.

Sports sector's allocation for the next fiscal has been set at Rs902 million which is 125.5 per cent higher than the last year. An international level Lahore Stadium will be set up, world quality sports facilities will be provided at Punjab Stadium, Nishtar Park, including Astroturf grounds, athletic tartan track and floodlights.

A world class swimming pool at Nishtar Park is also included in the ADP besides developing sports facilities around school clusters at tehsil level in 12 districts.