LAHORE, June 26: The Lahore District Council has unanimously decided to levy road user charge on the motor vehicles entering the city district limits from next month.

During its budget meeeting on Thursday, the council also decided to commercialize all the 32 roads under its control.

Drivers of cars, cabs, pickups and other light vehicles will pay Rs10 as road user charge while drivers of heavy vehicles like buses, coaches and trucks will pay Rs15.

Recovery will start as soon as the City District Government has made arrangements for the purpose.

The CDG expects to collect Rs100 million in the form of charge every year.

Naib Nazim Farooq Amjad Mir said that the CDG would start paying an allowance of at least Rs300 to members for attending a session in addition to the honorarium.

He said that the members would get a good amount in the form of allowance as the council would be holding 50 sessions in a year.

The council approved a Rs5569.818 million surplus budget for the fiscal 2003-4 with an overwhelming majority. It also asked the Punjab government to transfer the control of the Parks and Horticulture Authority to the CDG. The council also said that the CDG should be exempted from paying the salary of the PHA staff, pending the implementation of the decision as the authority was in a position to meet all its expenses.

Only seven district councillors voted against the Rs.13.192 million nominal surplus budget, presented by District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood when Naib Nazim sought the opinion of the house on it.

The District Nazim said that the CDG would utilize Rs4,663.521 million (83.728 per cent) of the budget for meeting the establishment and non-salary expenditure and Rs893.105 million (16.03 per cent) on the annual development programme.

A sum of Rs501.936 million (56.2 per cent) would be spent on ongoing development schemes and Rs391.169 million (43.73 per cent) on new schemes.

He said that the CDG proposed to spend Rs217.348 million on solid waste management; Rs169.301 million on roads and streets; Rs78.939 million on education; Rs74.574 million on health; Rs15.25 million on agriculture; Rs10 million on transport; Rs7.650 million on streetlight, electrical and mechanical; Rs3.56 million on social welfare and Rs2.94 million on literacy.

He said that a sum of Rs252 million had been allocated for utilization through the citizen community boards with public participation.

A sum of Rs.6 million had been allocated for development schemes started by the defunct Lahore District Council and Rs20.281 million for the roads rehabilitation programme.

The CDG had approved 2,500 development schemes last year and allocated Rs622.36 million for funding the same. It had also received a financial assistance of Rs637 million from the Punjab government. An equal amount was expected to be received during the next financial year as well.

He said that the CDG had recovered 100 per cent rent of its properties along with arrears of Rs4 million during the current financial year. General Bus Stand income had increased to Rs102 million from Rs60 million and property tax receipts had increased from Rs362 million to Rs473 million.

He said that 1,309 revenue cases had been decided and the list of excise and taxation defaulters had been provided to sub-registrars for recoveries at the time of transfer of properties.

A sum of Rs7 million was being spent on revenue record computerization.

The CDG planned to raise the sanitation fee recovery from the present Rs10 million to Rs273 million. It had decided to start recovery of the fee with Wasa bills from next month. The CDG was acquiring new solid waste collection and disposal machinery from Rs170 million grant provided by the provincial government.

Tractors, armrolls and trucks were being provided to all the 34 rural union councils for solid waste lifting immediately. As a result, the CDG solid waste collection capability will increase by 1,500 tons daily. He said that the CDG had issued letters of intent to two companies for production of fertilizer and generation of power from solid waste on BOT basis.

The District Nazim said that the CDG had taken a number of steps for improving the standard of education in the city district. A number of schools had been upgraded and 189 institutions with limited number of students and teachers had been merged with other schools.

NGOs had been associated in upgradation of buildings and teaching facilities in 131 Ravi Town schools. As many as 600 literacy centres and 124 adult education centres had also been set up.

He said that 7,483 food samples collected during the campaign against adulteration had been found sub-standard and fines totalling Rs5.35 million had been imposed on manufacturers and dealers. Of the 1,564 CDG cases pending in courts, 722 had been decided. The CDG was computerizing all its records.

The Nazim said he proposed to authorize the union councils to recover the Wasa arrears. The amount collected by every union council would be utilized on its schemes. The CDG had bricklined 10.6 kilometre long water channels and levelled 2,090 acre using the laser technology. It had arranged wheat sowing on 16,258 acre through zero tillage technology. Its livestock department had treated 70,000 cattle during the year.

As many as 800,000 saplings had been planted during tree plantation campaigns. Eleven machinery pools had been established in rural areas for providing agricultural implements and machinery to small farmers.

Commencing the brief debate on budget, Shahid Imtiaz thanked the CDG for acquiring solid waste management machinery for the city district at a cost of Rs170 million. He said that machinery had been acquired for the purpose after more than 15 years.

Navid Sadiq said that budget speech of District Nazim was based mostly on the details of the works done during the current financial year. He had spent only two to three minutes on the details of the next financial year’s budget.

He said that only 7 per cent of development budget was allocated for new schemes. The rest was proposed to be spent on the ongoing schemes.

Arshad Husain said that the budget allocation for rural areas should be increased. Hamid Khan said over 50 per cent of the development budget had been allocated for the promotion of education.

Malik Shaukat and Mian Mahbub praised the CDG steps for boosting agricultural production.

Nusrat Hashmi sought funds’ allocation for the development schemes proposed by the special seats councillors.