TOBA TEK SINGH, Aug 10: In a major shift in the administrative setup of the province, the Punjab government has decided to control officialdom by invoking good old eight divisions, this time placing them under as many provincial secretaries instead of commissioners.

The divisions were abolished under ‘Devolution Plan’ introduced in 2001 by the then chief executive, Gen Pervaiz Musharraf.

According to sources, on Saturday provincial government's Services and General Administration Department issued a directive to all district coordination officers, informing them that in order to ensure prompt feedback and dissemination of instructions to the districts, it had been decided that specified administrative secretaries would perform duty as ‘regional coordinators’ for specific divisions.

It says the regional coordinators’ responsibilities will include maintaining regular liaison with the DCOs in their respective divisions, to pass on all instructions received from provincial government for the DCOs, to collect all information required by the provincial government from time to time from the districts and to undertake regular tour of the divisions to familiarise themselves with the issues pertaining to the divisions.

Under the new arrangement, Lahore division will be coordinated by home secretary, Rawalpindi by forest secretary,

Gujranwala by industries secretary, Multan by food secretary, Bahawalpur by Information & Culture secretary, Dera Ghazi Khan by mines secretary, Faisalabad by cooperrative secretary and Sargodha by agriculture secretary.