LAHORE, May 11: The Punjab government has allowed all the 3,453 union council Nazimeen to purchase 125cc motorcycles for meeting their transport requirements and make 100 telephone calls every month on the UC account.

A sum of around Rs276.24 million will be spent on acquiring 3,453 motorcycles being sold for Rs80,000 each in the market. Only one company is likely to benefit from the government decision which is engaged in the manufacture of 125cc motorcycles.

Besides permission for 100 free telephone calls every month, they have been allowed to get a mobile telephone connection in case the PTCL phone facility is not available in the vicinity of their offices. Majority of the UC Nazims are expected to opt for mobile phones.

The UC Nazimeen have been assured that their funds would not lapse in the event of failure to utilise the same by June 30 and would be carried over to the next year’s budget. The assurance has been given in view of the fact that majority of the UCs have not been able to start work on the development schemes for utilizing their funds due to non-availability of technical staff for planning and execution of the schemes.