LAHORE, May 31: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Thursday 33 per cent quota would be reserved for women and five per cent for the youth in the new local government system so as to give them ample representation.

Presiding over a cabinet meeting, he said special seats would be reserved for minorities and farmers as well as workers in local bodies institutions for giving due representation to all segments of the society.

He said Punjab would be the first province to have special quota for the youth in local bodies.

Earlier, the meeting also approved setting up of building control authorities at the divisional level to check the incidents resulting from dangerous and dilapidated buildings. The offices of these authorities will also be set up at district and tehsil levels.

The performance report of Punjab Public Service Commission for the year 2010-11 and the annual report of Punjab Pension Fund were also discussed in the meeting.

Referring to the building control in the province, the chief minister directed that a unified system should be evolved to eliminate overlapping in the powers of development authorities and town municipal administration. He said development authorities would be responsible for building control in their notified areas.

He said the government had sent the draft of Punjab Building Control and Housing Authority Bill to the law department for scrutiny.

Commissioners would be the chairmen of these authorities at divisional level while the chief executive officer of the authority would act as its secretary/member. Sub-offices of these authorities will also be established at the district and tehsil levels.

He said development authorities would be responsible for dealing with the matters relating to building control, management of housing schemes, implementation of relevant laws and other issues. He said that establishment of the authorities was necessary to check the tragic incidents like Kharak. He said that the process of inspection of industrial institutions should be outsourced and immediate replacement of substandard boilers of factories should be ensured so as to protect the lives of the workers.Appreciating the performance of Punjab Public Service Commission, the chief minister said the measures taken by the government had encouraged talented and hardworking candidates.

Granting approval to the construction of the new building of PPSC, he said that this institution had displayed commendable performance regarding implementation of the merit policy.

He lauded the role of Information Technology Director in making PPSC system online and said that a policy be devised for encouraging officers and staff showing the best performance in all institutions for promoting competitive spirit for the benefit of the masses.

The PPSC chairman, presenting annual performance report of the institution, informed the meeting that 310,333 applications were processed during 2011, 21,000 candidates were interviewed while recommendations were made for recruitment against more than 5,600 vacancies.

He said PPSC had made the entire examination system online while remaining within its limited resources which would save Rs8 million per annum.