FAISALABAD: District Coordination Officer (DCO) Salman Ghani, also the city district government administrator, approved the annual budget of the city district government worth Rs20.5 billion for the financial year 2016-17.

The budget was approved in a meeting at the DCO office on Friday, says a district government handout.

The income of the district government is estimated at Rs1.64 billion and Rs726.8 million will be allocated for the ongoing development schemes and Rs129.7 million for the new development projects.

Also, Rs792 million are likely to be spent under the Punjab City Governance Improvement Programme.

The DCO said Rs441 million would be spent on buying medicines while the budget of electricity charges of tehsil headquarters (THQs) hospital and rural health centres had also been increased by 118.11 percent to provide dual electricity connections there for uninterrupted power supply. He said a 100 percent budget had been increased to buy air-conditioners for THQs.

He said the Civil Defence Department had been equipped with the most advanced machinery and security instruments and the budget of the department had been enhanced by 386 percent and funds of Rs 34.4 million had been allocated to buy modern machinery and utility transport for rescue challenges.

The DCO said budget had also been increased for the forestation and Rs2.5 million was allocated for the tree plantation campaign.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2016